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When  you  leave,  please  leave  this  book 

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Except  a  loaned  book." 


\vi  ry  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 

(.11  I  01  Sl  YUOX  R  B.  Dl  RSI  Ol  DYORK  LIBRARY 


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NO    LONGER    FROl-HAULE. 


THE  LEAVEN  IN 
A   GREAT   CITY 

By  Lillian  W.   Betts 

ILLUSTRATED 


New   York 
DODD,    MEAD    &   COMPANY 

1902 


Of 

H 


Copyright,  1902, 
By  Dodd,  Mead  and  Company. 


First  Edition  published  September,  1902. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     At  the  Bottom, i 

II.     The    Development    oe     Social 

Centers, 37 

III.  The  Homes  Under  One  Rooe,      .     75 

IV.  Slow-Dawning  Consciousness,        102 
V.     Working-Girls'  Clubs,      .      .      .135 

VI.  A  Social  Experiment,        .      .      .162 

VII.  Within  the  Walls  oe  Home,      .    196 

VIII.  Financial  Relations  in  Families,  225 

IX.  Home  Standards, 263 

X.  Where  Lies  the  Responsibility?  290 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


No  Longer  Profitable — Frontispiece. 
The  Site  of  the  Old  Runway 

Your  Choice  

Saturday  Morning  on  the  East  Side 

The  Past,   Present,   and   Middle   Period 

A  Social   Centre  that  Becomes   Political 

A  Doorway  on  the  East  Side 

Early  Morning  among  the  Push-Carts    . 

Meeting  the  Needs  of  the  Neighbourhood 

A  Remnant   of   the   Past 

A  Type   of   the   Present 

A  Corner  in  a  Workingman's  Home 

A  Spiritual  Bulwark        .... 

Where  the  People  Share 
A   Corner   in   an   Old    Section 
Opposite  a  Corner  in  an  Old  Section 
The  Woman's  Home  Improvement  Club  at  the 
tlement  ...... 

The  Kindergarten  of  the  College  Settlement 
Making   a    Selection         .... 

At  the  Settlement — A   Stormy  Day 

Yard   Day   at    the    Settlement 

The  Children's  Hour  at  the  College  Settlement 

Mutual     Interests  .... 

The  Forest  of  the  Tenements 


Set- 


12 

24 
38 

44 
56 
60 
64 
70 
76 
88 

94 
128 

134 
152 
154 

168 
178 
184 
188 
196 
200 
206 
212 


vi      LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

The     Children's     Playground         .         .        .         .218 
Library   Day   at   the   College   Settlement         .         .  224 

A  Street  on  the  East  Side 236 

A   Cooking   Class  of  Mothers   and   Children         .  244 

A  Meeting  of  Neighbours 250 

The    Reading-Room    at    the    Settlement        .         .  254 
After  School  at  the  College  Settlement  .         .  258 

The  Morning  Airing  of  an  East  Side  Heiress         .  264 

A  Bit  of  Old  Greenwich 274 

A  Little  Father 280 

A    Corner    in    Old    Greenwich         ....  286 
Taking  their  Turn  in  the  Yard  at  the  Settlement      .  294 


CHAPTER  I. 

AT  THE  BOTTOM. 

One  of  the  first,  and,  up  to  the  present  time, 
one  of  the  most  interesting  experiments  made  in 
New  York  for  the  better  housing  of  the  poor,  was 
made  in  the  early  eighties  by  a  score  or  less  of 
philanthropic  capitalists.  These  gentlemen  or- 
ganized a  stock  company  to  hold  and  manage 
tenement-house  property,  limiting  their  dividends 
to  three  per  cent,  on  the  capital ;  the  surplus  divi- 
dends, if  any,  over  this  amount,  to  be  used  in  im- 
proving the  property,  and  securing  such  condi- 
tions and  opportunities  for  the  tenants  as  would 
stimulate  pride  and  independence.  The  forma- 
tion of  this  company  followed  one  of  the  periodic 
agitations  of  the  tenement-house  problems  cus- 
tomary in  New  York. 

In  1878  a  conference  was  called  by  the  State 
Charities'  Aid  Association  to  consider  the  condi- 
tion of  the  tenement  houses  in  this  city.  Mr. 
Alfred  T.  White,  of  Brooklyn,  had  at  this  time 
proved  that  model  tenements,  conducted  on  strict- 
ly business  principles,  paid  as  investments,  and 
stated  at  this  conference  that  his  model  houses 


2       LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

made  a  return  of  seven  one-half  per  cent.  As  a 
result  of  this  conference  a  committee  was  ap- 
pointed who  reported  that  they  did  not  find  it 
desirable  to  recommend  the  building  of  model 
tenements  in  New  York  at  this  time.  Mr.  White 
for  many  years  stood  alone  as  the  man  of  wealth 
with  the  courage  of  his  convictions,  that  there 
were  wage-earners  compelled  to  live  under  tene- 
ment-house conditions  who  would  pay  for  and 
respect  the  best  housing  that  capital  would  offer 
them,  within  their  rent-paying  capacity. 
The  tenement-house  agitation  continued 
In  1879  Mayor  Cooper  had  appointed  a  com- 
mittee known  as  the  "Mayor's  Committee,"  to  de- 
vise means  to  effect  tenement-house  reforms. 
This  committee  reported,  and  among  other  sug- 
gestions recommended,  that  companies  be  organ- 
ized to  build  modern  tenements.  Some  members 
of  this  committee,  with  others,  formed  the  stock 
company  alluded  to  with  a  capital  of  $300,000. 
With  a  wisdom  peculiarly  their  own,  they  did  not 
wait  until  model  buildings  could  be  erected  accord- 
ing to  plans  not  yet  drawn  on  sites  not  yet  selected, 
but  they  leased  on  a  long  lease  property  that  had 
been  unproductive  for  a  long  time,  and  occupied 
by  a  people  at  the  lowest  level  of  the  home-making 
people  of  the  city.  Below  them  are  the  people 
who  do  not  even  pretend  to  make  a  home.     This 


AT  THE  BOTTOM 


property  was  located  in  the  old  Fourth  Ward.  It 
was  the  reputation  of  this  ward,  and  the  record  of 
the  particular  property,  which  doubtless  led  these 
capitalists  to  secure  it.  It  was  conceded  that  the 
poverty  and  degradation  of  the  Fourth  Ward  was 
at  least  as  great  as  in  any  other  section  of  the  city. 
The  property  leased  had  attracted  public  attention 
and  been  the  subject  of  special  investigation  and 
reports  in  every  agitation  of  the  tenement-house 
problem  since  1856. 

The  Fourth  Ward  criminal  and  health  records 
figure  for  an  even  longer  period  in  every  effort 
at  bettering  municipal  conditions  by  the  example 
it  presented  of  civic  indifference,  neglect  and  mal- 
administration. The  houses  faced  on  two  alleys, 
known  in  their  best  days  as  "Single"  and  "Dou- 
ble" alley,  respectively.  As  this  distinction  indi- 
cates, on  Single  Alley  one  row  of  houses  faced  the 
walls  of  the  adjoining  property,  while  two  rows 
of  houses  faced  each  other  across  Double  Alley. 
Later  known  as  Swipe's  Alley,  Guzzle  Row,  Hell's 
Kitchen,  Murderers'  Row,  showing  the  gradual 
descent  from  respectability.  There  is  a  tradition 
that  Single  Alley  once  had  gardens  that  extended 
to  Roosevelt  Street ;  that  the  houses  had  been  oc- 
cupied by  one  family ;  but  this  cannot  be  verified. 
In  their  most  degenerate  days  these  houses  had  an 
air  of  exclusiveness,  due  doubtless  to  their  front- 


4       LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

ing  on  courts  and  the  tall  iron  fences,  with  gates, 
that  separated  the  houses  from  the  street.  The 
neighborhood  at  one  time  was  aristocratic ;  Frank- 
lin Square,  but  a  short  distance  from  the  property, 
was  a  social  center  of  national  greatness.  As  busi- 
ness went  northward,  the  merchants,  bankers, 
tradespeople,  followed,  for  the  tie  between  home 
and  business  was  still  very  close ;  the  midday  din- 
ner made  distance  between  the  two  impossible. 
The  old  homes  were  left  for  subdivision  among 
the  skilled  workmen  and  clerks. 

The  tide  of  immigration  set  in,  and  the  stran- 
gers settled  near  the  docks  and  wharfs — the  source 
of  their  wages ;  in  time  they  crowded  into  the  old 
residences,  beginning  the  housing  problem  of  New 
York.  These  old  homes  were  soon  overcrowded. 
They  could  not  be  made  sanitary.  The  demand 
for  room  was  so  great  that  the  large  closets — the 
necessity  of  the  old-time  housekeepers — were 
counted  bedrooms,  and  are  to-day  in  houses  of 
this  type  in  tenement-house  regions  throughout 
the  city. 

The  property  secured  by  the  new  company  at 
the  time  it  was  leased  was  a  part  of  a  large  estate, 
the  owner  of  which  during  his  lifetime  had  per- 
sonally cared  for  it.  He  was  both  strict  and  just, 
and  these  two  attributes  preserved  these  houses  for 
years  after  the  property  in  the  neighborhood  had 


AT  THE  BOTTOM  5 

begun  to  yield  to  the  character  of  later  residents. 
This  owner  kept  the  alleys  and  the  houses  in  re- 
pair. The  semi-privacy  the  iron  gate  gave  the  ten- 
ants was  for  years  the  reason  that  the  better-paid 
mechanics  remained  in  the  courts  or  alleys.  When 
the  owner  died,  the  property  was  put  in  control  of 
an  agent,  with  the  usual  result — rapid  degeneracy. 
It  was  now  conducted  to  secure  the  largest  re- 
turns at  the  least  outlay.  The  evils  of  the  absentee 
landlord  are  not  confined  to  Ireland.  Absentee- 
ism on  the  part  of  owners  of  tenement-house  prop- 
erty is  one  of  the  causes  of  the  social  and  civic 
problems  that  retard  the  growth  of  the  highest 
civilization  in  New  York.  Under  the  manage- 
ment of  an  agent,  the  character  of  the  tenants  in 
the  courts  changed  rapidly,  and  the  people  who 
took  possession  added  to  the  disreputable  charac- 
ter of  the  Fourth  Ward.  For  years  before  this 
the  largest  per  cent,  of  the  immigrants  settling  in 
New  York  settled  in  this  section.  They  came  with 
distorted  notions  as  to  their  place  in  the  new  land. 
Liberty  meant  to  the  majority  the  right  to  follow 
their  own  will.  When  hunger  and  loneliness 
and  nakedness  forced  them  to  reconsider  their 
first  conception  of  what  America  was,  resentment, 
recklessness,  or  adaptability  developed.  The  dif- 
ference was  a  matter  of  temperament  quite  as 
much  as  of  race. 


6       LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

In  1880  the  heads  of  the  families  living  in  the 
courts  were  day  laborers — men  who  worked  along 
the  docks,  coal  shovelers,  hucksters,  women  who 
did  a  day's  work,  sold  newspapers  at  the  ferries, 
or  worked  in  the  factories.  Every  child  in  the 
alley  was  ready  to  do  anything  that  would  earn 
money  from  the  time  he  could  walk.  The  people 
knew  every  benefit  the  city  dispensed  to  the  poor : 
free  coal ;  homes  available  and  how  to  get  in  them ; 
free  burial ;  every  organization  that  dispersed 
charity,  and  how  to  get  it.  Even  the  children  were 
clever  in  their  extremities,  and  knew  how  to  get 
assistance  when  the  Island  claimed  their  parents. 
From  infancy  the  children  looked  forward  to 
wage-earning  as  a  time  of  happiness.  School  was 
a  prison-house  to  be  avoided,  except  when  its 
warmth  and  shelter  were  preferable  to  the  street, 
or  the  home,  when  intemperance  and  temper 
made  life  unendurable  in  it;  then  they  attended 
school  willingly.  The  truant  officers  in  this  re- 
gion were  not  feared.  They  were  the  fags  of  the 
"boss,"  not  the  officers  of  a  city  department. 
None  of  the  fads  of  to-day,  which  so  disturb  the 
conservative  people  who  see  ruin  of  mental  abil- 
ity in  modern  educational  systems,  were  then 
thought  of.  The  kindergarten,  nature  study, 
manual  training,  were  on  the  educational  horizon 
of  New  York,  in  a  cloud  scarcely  so  large  as  a 


AT  THE  BOTTOM 


man's  hand.  The  trustee  system  was  in  perfect 
working  order.  The  teachers  were  what  God 
made  them,  unhampered  by  the  pressure  of  super- 
intendent and  supervisors  to  maintain  standards. 

It  was  as  true  in  that  day  as  in  1892,  when  a 
man,  wholly  familiar  with  all  the  systems  of  edu- 
cation in  the  country,  to  the  question,  "Why  is 
there  such  uniformity  in  the  defects  of  the  schools 
in  the  tenement-house  regions?"  replied,  "They 
represent  the  demands  of  the  people  in  the  dis- 
trict who  elect  the  men  who  control  them.  You 
will  find  that  the  public  schools  always  represent 
the  public  sentiment  and  demands  of  the  people 
interested  in  them." 

This  was  profoundly  true  of  the  schools  in  this 
region  at  this  time.  To-day  there  is  scarcely  any 
change  in  the  buildings  except  that  of  added  age. 
At  least  two  of  them  are  a  disgrace  to  the  city. 
But  there  is  a  great  change  in  the  system.  To-day 
the  civilizing  force  in  this  community  is  the  public 
schools;  the  remnant  does  not  attract  the  philan- 
thropist. To  the  men  and  women  of  our  public 
schools  who,  preserving  the  highest  ideals,  work 
with  enthusiasm  amid  the  most  discouraging  sur- 
roundings, the  city  owes  a  debt  that  money  cannot 
repay. 

The  liquor  saloons  numbered  then  about  as  they 
do  now,  occupying  every  available  space.     More 


8       LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

elaborate  now,  perhaps,  for  they  represent  polit- 
ical headquarters,  if  not  proprietorship,  of  men 
identified  with  the  worst  forms  of  political  cor- 
ruption ;  then,  as  now,  openly  used  in  the  interest 
of  these  men.  There  is  this  great  change,  that 
children  dare  not  now,  as  they  did  then,  enter  and 
leave  these  places  fearlessly  at  any  hour  carrying 
pails,  pitchers  or  bottles.  It  was  then  a  neighbor- 
ly kindness  to  let  children  thus  serve  a  neighbor; 
it  was  a  source  of  revenue  to  the  children. 

The  gangs  were  many  and  notorious  in  the 
ward.  Frequent  were  the  clashes  and  loyal  the 
spirit  with  which  assailed  and  assailants  main- 
tained silence  if  there  was  danger  of  arrest  be- 
cause of  these  conflicts.  "To  squeal"  was  to  earn 
the  contempt  of  the  community.  The  number  of 
crimes,  the  full  measure  of  degradation,  reached 
in  this  ward  will  never  be  known.  The  dense 
population  of  this  ward  is  so  hidden  by  business 
and  traffic  that  in  1901  the  statement  was  made 
by  some  people  interested  in  civic  affairs  that  the 
region  was  given  over  to  office  buildings.  The 
district  of  which  the  Fourth  Ward  is  a  part  cast 
10,000  votes  in  the  mayoralty  campaign  of  that 
year.  Votes  that  represent  a  civilization  as  pe- 
culiarly its  own  as  though  oceans  separated  it 
from  the  people  a  mile  and  a  half  away. 

Target  companies  were  the  social  clubs  of  that 


AT  THE  BOTTOM 


day,  the  forerunners  of  the  political  organizations 
of  to-day.  The  climax  of  their  existence  were  the 
annual  excursions  to  some  near-by  grove  for 
shooting  matches.  These  matches  were  the  great 
social  occasions  of  the  many  "sets."  The  ques- 
tion of  who  was  the  reigning  belle  of  the  locality 
was  settled  beyond  dispute  by  selection  of  one  to 
present  the  wreath  for  the  target,  or  a  big  bunch 
of  flowers,  to  the  captain  of  the  target  company 
on  the  day  of  the  annual  parade.  These 
were  always  of  artificial  flowers,  and  were  made 
gorgeous  and  splendid  by  floating  strips  and 
fringes  of  tinsel  paper.  The  greatest  feuds  in  the 
ward  have  grown  out  of  the  selection  of  the  fair 
lady  to  present  these  trophies.  Her  selection 
changed  the  political  history  of  her  friends  often, 
and  her  knights'  fists  fought  her  cause,  and 
crowned  her,  their  wounds  testifying  to  their 
devotion.  The  political  "boss"  of  that  period  pre- 
sented the  organizations  that  acknowledged  his 
leadership  with  silver  mugs,  castors  or  pitchers — 
prizes  for  the  shooters — but  he  presented  money  to 
keep  the  balance  of  his  popularity.  The  gifts 
were  carried  conspicuously  over  the  route  of  the 
procession,  which  always  stopped  in  front  of  the 
house  of  the  lady,  who  was  to  express  her  favor 
in  the  gifts  of  floral  trophies — usually  paid  for  by 
the  company,  sometimes  by  her  knight,  or  knights 


io      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

combined  for  her  honor.  This  house  was  for  the 
time  being  the  center  of  interest  for  the  crowd,  as 
she  was  of  envy  or  pride  to  the  community.  The 
day  of  the  target  parade  was  one  that  called  for 
great  sacrifice,  that  it  might  be  attended  by  the 
requisite  formalities  and  new  clothes.  Money 
must  be  raised  to  provide  barouches  for  the  great 
political  lights  of  the  ward  who  gave  this  par- 
ticular company  their  favor ;  to  pay  the  attendant 
colored  men  who  carried  the  target  and  the  water 
and  tin  cups ;  for  the  band  with  the  drum  major. 
All  cost  money,  and  money  was  scarce;  but  the 
prominence  and  pleasure  paid;  and  the  Fourth 
Ward  had  many  of  these  organizations,  which 
made  life  exciting,  and  at  times  dangerous,  when 
their  several  groups  met,  each  struggling  for  su- 
premacy, each  with  a  leader  who  must  be  de- 
fended. 

Fresh-air  organizations,  seaside  resorts,  were 
as  unknown  as  trolleys;  hundreds  in  the  Fourth 
Ward  lived  and  died  without  ever  having  seen 
Central  Park  or  the  ocean.  The  relief  from  the 
sufferings  of  summer  was  sitting  and  sleeping  on 
the  near-by  piers.  Man's  humanity  to  man  at  this 
period  of  New  York's  social  history  was  ex- 
pressed in  hospitals,  infirmaries,  homes  of  many 
kinds,  distribution  of  food,  clothes  and  medicine. 
The  more  applications  secured  for  these  sources 


AT  THE  BOTTOM  n 

of  relief,  the  more  tickets  given  out  in  a  year  at 
any  point  for  outside  relief,  the  more  easy  the  con- 
science of  the  men  who  sent  the  money  that  main- 
tained them,  who  measured  the  value  of  their 
charities  by  the  figures  representing  human  be- 
ings that  appeared  in  the  reports.  Thanksgiving 
and  Christmas  dinners  were  then,  as  now,  "round- 
ups" for  the  wretched,  the  needy  and  the  lazy. 
The  pleasure  of  the  givers  was  greatly  added  to 
by  watching  the  hungry  eating. 

What  caused  the  misery  and  wretchedness  was 
no  secret;  but  with  few  exceptions  the  men  of 
money  and  brains  were  not  ready  to  remove  the 
prevailing  and  rooted  cause.  The  exceptions  were 
the  men  who,  impressed  by  the  example  of  Mr. 
Alfred  T.  White,  leased  the  tenements  known  as 
Single  and  Double  alley,  or  Gotham  Court,  the 
worst  piece  of  property  in  what  was  acknowledged 
to  be  the  worst  ward  in  the  city. 

It  had  grown  more  and  more  difficult  to  collect 
rents,  and  the  destruction  of  the  property  by  the 
tenants  made  any  effort  at  repair  futile.  Lead 
pipe,  brass  faucets,  were  wrenched  off  and  sold 
as  rapidly  as  they  were  put  in;  banisters,  stair- 
rails,  blinds,  even  wooden  floors  had  been  used 
as  firewood.  The  very  bricks  on  the  chimneys 
were  used  as  missiles  of  offense  and  defense.  The 
Double  Alley  boasted  of  a  haunted  house,  which 


12      LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

at  times  created  the  greatest  excitement  in  the 
neighborhood  because  of  mysterious  noises  and 
lights  seen  and  heard  at  night.  Again  and  again 
the  house  had  been  raided  by  the  police  and  stolen 
goods  recovered  after  the  ghostly  exhibits.  The 
police  showed  to  the  brave  of  the  neighborhood 
that  sulphur  and  brimstone  were  the  ghostly 
lights,  and  clever  arrangements  of  ropes  and  pul- 
leys and  pans  the  source  of  the  cries  and  groans 
that  had  frozen  them  with  fear.  It  was  useless. 
The  next  appearance  of  the  lights  and  the  sound 
of  awful  groans  filled  the  neighborhood  with 
terror. 

For  obvious  reasons  the  only  source  of  water 
supply  was  a  hydrant  in  the  center  of  each  alley. 
The  only  drainage  was  the  sink  sunk  in  front  of 
it.  When  it  is  remembered  that  between  five  and 
six  hundred  people  lived  in  these  houses,  the  op- 
portunities for  cleanliness  will  be  appreciated. 
All  the  water  used  was  carried  up  and  down  stairs. 
That  pans  and  pails  of  water  were  emptied  from 
the  windows  without  careful  note  of  the  passer-by 
beneath  is  not  surprising.  This  naturally  was 
not  conducive  to  peace ;  but  peace  was  not  the  aim 
of  the  people  of  the  court ;  in  fact,  its  disturbance 
varied  the  monotony  of  life  in  the  alleys. 

Single  Alley  had  a  narrow  opening  from  its 
rear,  or  western,  end  to  Roosevelt  Street.     This 


AT  THE  BOTTOM  13 

was  paved  with  brick  sunken  and  broken.  It  was 
a  dormitory  for  the  drunken  and  homeless,  a  de- 
pository for  all  kinds  of  refuse.  This  alley  was 
a  runway.  The  entrance  on  the  two  streets  of- 
fered every  opportunity  of  escape  to  the  fleeing 
fugitive  from  justice  or  vengeance.  The  code  of 
honor  of  the  alley  was  to  speed  the  hunted  and  ob- 
struct the  hunter.  The  policeman  entering  the 
alley  in  pursuit  of  a  transgressor  knew  his  fate; 
he  was  a  target  for  water,  wood,  coal,  bricks  and 
unlimited  language;  unexpected  obstructions 
would  be  found  in  the  alley,  and  the  attentions  he 
received  when  he  tripped  or  fell  were  intended  to 
increase  the  distance  between  the  representative  of 
law  and  order  and  the  fleeing  offender.  He  or 
she  might  or  might  not  be  a  friend.  The  alley's 
activity  in  behalf  of  the  fugitive  was  based  on  a 
new  interpretation  of  the  promised  return  of 
bread  cast  on  the  waters. 

No  matter  how  bitter  the  feuds  that  divided  the 
tenants  in  the  alley,  the  appearance  of  a  rent  col- 
lector in  the  later  days  healed  the  breach,  bridged 
the  widest  chasm.  He  was  a  common  foe  and  to 
be  downed  by  common  consent.  If  abuse  and  de- 
fiance did  not  drive  him  beyond  the  gates,  bricks 
dropped  from  the  roofs,  after  a  vigorous  cam- 
paign of  water  and  cooking  utensils,  conducted  by 
the  feminine  contingent  from  the  windows,  usual- 


14      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

ly  accomplished  his  complete  rout,  not  only  for 
that  time,  but  for  the  future.  As  the  years  passed 
on,  it  became  almost  impossible  to  get  any  agent 
to  make  the  second  attempt  to  collect  rent  from  the 
tenants  of  the  alleys. 

The  home  life  of  the  people  in  the  alley  was  in- 
teresting. Every  inch  of  space  was  occupied. 
The  families  ranged  from  a  childless  old  couple, 
past  seventy,  who  had  lived  twenty-eight  years 
in  the  Single  Alley,  to  the  boy  and  girl  who  had 
just  started  housekeeping  on  nothing  at  all.  The 
women  in  the  alleys  had  married,  it  was  found,  at 
about  eighteen.  They  knew  absolutely  nothing 
of  housekeeping.  Many  of  them  acknowledged 
that  they  had  never  made  a  fire  before  they  mar- 
ried. The  most  elementary  knowledge  of  cook- 
ing, sewing  or  the  use  of  money  was  lacking.  Of 
the  two  hundred  and  one  mothers  in  the  alley,  one 
could  cut  and  make  the  garments  for  herself  and 
children ;  four  could  make  bread — one  did ;  one 
made  soup  sometimes,  but  could  not  remember 
the  last  time.  Meals  consisted  of  bread  and  cof- 
fee, or  tea,  with  beer  provided  for  "him"  for  break- 
fast and  supper.  Dinner  was  a  "bit"  of  meat  or 
fish,  thought  of  and  cooked  between  eleven  and 
twelve;  the  cooking  was  frying.  Potatoes  were 
substituted  for  bread  at  this  meal ;  rarely  any  other 
vegetable  except  Sunday.      On  that  day,  if  there 


AT  THE  BOTTOM  15 

was  money  enough  in  the  morning,  dinner  was  of 
corned  beef  and  cabbage,  or  bacon  and  cabbage. 
One  family  standing  at  the  head  of  this  com- 
munity socially  had  meat  three  times  each  day. 
This  family  had  in  it  five  wage-earners.  They 
paid  four  dollars  a  month  rent  for  two  rooms. 
The  children  had  all  been  born  and  had  grown  to 
manhood  and  womanhood  in  the  alley.  As  the 
writer  was  able  to  win  the  confidence  of  these  peo- 
ple, it  was  evident  that  each  mother  was  conscious 
that  something  was  wrong  that  life  yielded  no  bet- 
ter return.  What  was  wrong?  Where  the  rem- 
edy was  to  be  found  did  not  seem  to  interest  them. 
The  days  drifted.  Children  ran  half  naked  or  in 
rags,  while  mothers  sat  in  neighbors'  rooms,  stood 
in  doorways,  in  the  halls,  or  lounged  in  the  alleys. 
There  were  homes  in  which  neither  needles, 
thread  nor  scissors  could  be  found.  The  mother 
did  not  know  how  to  use  them.  A  pot  and  a  fry- 
ing pan  were  the  only  cooking  utensils  the  most 
lavish  closet  revealed.  Washing  and  scrubbing 
are  laborious  at  any  time,  but  when  carrying  wa- 
ter from  ten  to  fifty  feet  on  the  level,  then  up  one 
to  four  flights  of  stairs  and  down  again  is  added 
to  the  labor,  it  is  not  astonishing  that  dishes, 
clothes  and  bodies  were  at  all  times  freighted  with 
disease  and  death.  A  knowledge  of  the  relation 
between  dirt  and  disease,  cleanliness  and  health 


16      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

was  not  the  general  knowledge  it  is  to-day.  Their 
relation  to  moral  elevation  or  degradation  is  bare- 
ly understood  to-day. 

The  average  weekly  wages  of  the  men  living 
in  the  alleys  at  this  period  was  between  eight  and 
nine  dollars  per  week,  and  sometimes  kept  at  the 
latter  figure  for  weeks.  It  will  be  seen  at  once  that 
the  poverty,  misery,  degradation  and  dirt  that 
kept  life  at  the  level  it  was  in  the  alleys  was  due  to 
some  other  cause  than  wages,  for  rent  was  only 
four  dollars  a  month,  when  paid,  and  it  was  paid 
less  than  eight  months  of  the  year.  Beer  flowed 
in  the  alley;  tin  cans,  pitchers,  pails,  went  back 
and  forth  at  all  times  of  the  day  and  night.  It 
was  the  first  errand  on  which  the  baby  feet  were 
sent.  Every  woman  in  the  alley  acknowledged 
that  she  had  seen  her  husband  drunk  before  she 
married  him.  She  knew  better  how  to  manage 
him  when  he  was  drunk  than  when  he  was  sober. 
A  blow  given  in  drink  was  not  recorded  against  a 
husband  either  by  the  wife  or  her  neighbors.  A 
blow  given  when  the  man  was  sober  was  remem- 
bered and  aroused  pity  and  sympathy.  Over  sev- 
enty per  cent,  of  the  women  drank  to  the  point  of 
unconsciousness.  All  used  liquor.  Of  child 
training  there  was  none.  The  act  that  was 
laughed  at  this  hour  brought  a  blow  the  next.  At- 
tending school  was  for  the  child  to  decide.     If  he 


AT  THE  BOTTOM  17 

wanted  to  go,  he  went.  Usually  lack  of  clothing 
shut  out  about  half  the  children  of  school  age 
in  the  alley. 

Mother  love  was  largely  a  matter  of  animal  in- 
stinct. While  the  baby  depended  on  her  for  nour- 
ishment, she  could  be  found  with  it  in  her  arms 
at  all  times;  it  was,  so  far  as  life  had  a  concen- 
trated thought,  her  constant  care.  The  moment 
the  baby  found  its  feet  and  used  them,  the  child 
was  cut  loose  and  began  his  individual  life.  His 
standards,  language,  habits,  were  what  his  en- 
vironment made  them.  His  care,  so  far  as  the 
mother  was  concerned,  was  conducted  on  the  lines 
of  the  least  resistance.  If  the  child  was  struck  by 
an  outsider,  it  raised  the  tiger  in  the  mother;  if  ill, 
a  burden  to  carry  for  which  there  was  neither 
money  nor  knowledge;  the  mother  had  no 
strength  and  could  not  meet  cares  that  demanded 
continuous  thought ;  her  mind  was  not  trained  to 
it.  Health  and  disease  were  largely  a  matter  of 
luck.  Death  brought  pangs,  but  life  was  too 
much  of  a  struggle  for  it  to  be  a  crushing  blow, 
even  when  it  was  one's  child.  Children  came  and 
went  too  fast  in  the  alleys  for  their  coming  or  go- 
ing to  fill  or  empty  even  a  mother's  life. 

Not  one  woman  in  the  alley  could  remember 
ever  having  an  entire  new  outfit  in  her  life,  nor 
had  any  of  her  children;  her  first  baby  had  worn 


18      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

garments  that  had  been  made  for  some  more  for- 
tunate baby. 

Such  was  the  dead  level  of  existence  lived  in  the 
alleys.  Without  the  stimulus  of  drink  it  would 
be  lethargy,  and  was  when  there  was  no  money 
to  treat  or  be  treated.  Pleasure?  It  was  un- 
known outside  of  the  beer  can.  If  that  did  not 
give  pleasure,  why  life  was  a  hand-to-hand,  hope- 
less struggle  with  homelessness,  hunger  and 
nakedness.  In  the  alleys  a  fight  became  a  pleasure 
and  death  a  social  opportunity.  Even  love  seemed 
denied  the  people  of  the  alleys.  Marriage  often 
was  a  part  of  the  habitual  drifting  when  not  a  mat- 
ter of  compulsion.  Homes  were  established  with 
no  bond  but  that  of  law,  and  sometimes  not  that. 
That  they  even  were  what  they  were  was  a  tribute 
to  the  fundamental  morality  that  is  the  salvation 
of  the  civilized  world. 

These  were  the  people  who  had  made  the  alleys 
between  1855  and  1880,  when  the  owners  of  the 
estate  gladly  leased  the  property  on  a  long  lease. 
As  has  been  stated,  spasmodic  attempts  had  been 
made  to  reclaim  the  property,  to  make  it  produc- 
tive, but  always  by  men  acting  for  the  owners; 
they  never  came  in  personal  contact  with  the  ten- 
ants. It  is  doubtful  if  they  even  had  any  concep- 
tion of  the  effect  of  their  delegated  responsibility 
on  the  people,  or  had  any  knowledge  of  the  change 


AT  THE  BOTTOM  19 

that  resulted  when  the  property  ceased  to  have  the 
personal  supervision  of  the  owner. 

The  lessees  put  two  ladies  in  control  of  the 
property.  One  or  the  other  was  to  be  found  there 
each  day. 

The  tenants  were  notified  that  rent  must  be 
paid  weekly;  that  the  rooms  would  be  white- 
washed and  painted ;  that  the  agents  would  be  at 
liberty  to  visit  the  rooms  daily;  that  no  child 
would  be  permitted  to  carry  liquor  on  the  prem- 
ises; every  bundle  or  basket  carried  by  a  child 
would  be  examined,  and  any  liquor  found  would 
be  emptied  into  the  sink  in  the  yard.  Water  would 
be  put  in  the  halls  on  each  floor;  destruction  of 
property  would  mean  eviction.  All  who  were  un- 
willing to  accept  these  conditions  were  asked  to 
move  at  once.  The  rent  remained  the  same,  four 
dollars  per  month  for  two  rooms.  Families  desir- 
ing four  rooms  could  have  them  for  eight  dollars 
per  month,  the  company  cutting  a  door  through 
the  party  walls,  giving  direct  ventilation  through 
the  floor,  with  windows  opening  on  both  alleys. 
The  absolute  impossibility  of  getting  two  equally 
good  rooms  in  the  neighborhood  for  the  same  rent 
kept  the  majority  of  the  families.  A  few  tacitly 
accepted  the  change,  largely  because  acquiescence 
was  their  habit  of  mind,  while  some  expected 
to  set  at  naught  any  rules  or  regulations  that 


20      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

they  found  obnoxious.  No  tenant  moved  volun- 
tarily. 

The  new  ownership  took  possession  with  the 
same  human  beings  who  had  occupied  the  houses 
for  years.  The  first  step  was  to  insist  on  cleanli- 
ness. The  alleys  were  swept  and  washed  every 
morning,  as  were  the  halls  and  stairways.  Gar- 
bage cans  were  provided  and  their  use  insisted  on. 
Every  can  or  bundle  carried  by  a  child  was  exam- 
ined, and  all  liquors  found  in  them  were  emptied 
into  the  sink  in  the  yard.  Quarrels  and  fights  grew 
less  frequent,  especially  among  the  women.  The 
children  attended  school,  for  their  appearance  dur- 
ing school  hours  led  to  investigations  that  the 
majority  of  the  tenants  preferred  to  avoid.  The 
aim  was  to  establish  such  relations  between  the 
representatives  of  the  company  and  the  tenants  as 
would  give  opportunities  to  reduce  the  ignorance 
and  indifference  that  were  quite  as  responsible,  if 
not  more  responsible,  for  the  misery  in  the  homes 
than  lack  of  money.  The  tenants  held  aloof.  They 
were  tenants  because  they  could  not  get  as  much 
comfort  for  the  money  elsewhere;  but  there  could 
be  no  friendship  where  the  payment  of  rent  was 
insisted  upon,  where  drunkenness  involved  the 
risk  of,  and  abuse  of  property  positive,  eviction. 

Several  young  couples  were  tenants.  The  aim 
and  hope  of  the  agents  were  to  gain  the  confidence 


AT  THE  BOTTOM  21 

of  these  young  mothers.  The  first  child  of  one 
died  late  that  summer.  Potter's  Field  was  the  place 
of  burial.  The  young  father  could  have  worked 
six  days  in  the  week,  but  that  would  have  been 
slavery  intolerable.  He  refused  it,  and  followed 
his  lifelong  habit  of  drifting,  which  was  also  that 
of  the  young  mother.  She  had  never  resented 
her  husband's  days  of  idleness  until  this  baby  died 
and  there  was  not  one  cent  to  provide  for  the  care 
and  disposition  of  the  little  body.  This  was  the 
opportunity  of  the  two  women  who  were  waiting 
to  prove  that  they  were  not  oppressors.  A  little 
coffin,  a  white  slip  and  socks,  some  flowers — at 
that  time  an  unheard-of  tribute  to  death — a  car- 
riage and  a  grave  in  the  cemetery  approved  by  the 
mother's  church  was  provided.  The  battle  was 
won.  Every  man,  woman  and  child  in  the  alley 
surrendered  to  this  evidence  of  comradeship.  That 
this  act  gave  birth  to  hopes  that  must  be  stifled  was 
natural.  Rules  must  be  enforced  and  comrade- 
ship expressed  at  the  times  of  emergency.  The 
first  and  hardest  battle  was  won.  Confidences 
were  gained  that  led  to  marriages  and  baptisms 
that  had  been  neglected  or  forgotten.  The  office, 
simply  but  tastefully  furnished,  became  a  school- 
room, where  the  mothers  and  the  children  learned 
to  sew.  Goods  were  bought  in  quantities  and  sold 
at  cost  to  the  learners.     A  sewing  machine  and  a 


22       LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

teacher  appeared  and  were  welcomed.  Practical 
talks,  or,  more  properly,  conversations,  were  held ; 
but  no  one  took  note  of  them  as  special  efforts  in 
philanthropy,  they  were  so  naturally  a  part  of  each 
day's  experience.  The  daily  visits  to  each  ten- 
ant resulted  in  establishing  relations  that  justified 
reproof,  suggestion,  commendation.  The  stand- 
ards of  pleasure,  pain,  suffering,  accomplishment 
were  elementary  in  the  alleys.  An  hour's  work 
with  the  needle  left  the  worker  exhausted,  and  di- 
version then  meant  moral  safety.  The  homes 
were  barren,  and  the  acme  of  hope  was  wages  to 
pay  rent,  buy  food  and  clothes ;  the  last  rarely  real- 
ized. The  months,  and  even  years,  passed  with- 
out the  people  passing  beyond  the  confines  of  the 
ward.  The  generations  lived  this  life,  and  it  was 
a  fixed  habit.  The  world  had  nothing  to  offer  to 
the  habitual  residents  of  the  ward  that  the  ward 
did  not  provide;  it  has  but  little  to-day  to  offer 
them. 

In  spite  of  the  emptiness  of  life  and  barrenness 
of  these  homes,  they  were  on  the  whole  better  than 
the  homes  of  the  preceding  generation. 

When  the  wives  laid  the  cause  of  their  burdens 
on  their  husbands'  shoulders  because  they  drank, 
the  question,  "Did  you  know  he  drank  when 
you  married  him?"  would  be  answered  easily, 
with  no  thought  of  self-condemnation,  "Yes,"  in 
frank  confession. 


AT  THE  BOTTOM  23 

"Do  you  drink?" 

"I  drink  beer,  mostly.  Sure,  ye  get  discour- 
aged just  working  and  washing,  and  never  a  cent; 
not  a  decent  rag  to  go  on  the  street,  and  no  place 
to  go  when  you  get  there  but  a  neighbor's  house. 
What  is  there  but  a  glass  of  beer?  You  don't 
mean  to  get  drunk ;  yer  that  before  ye  know." 

This  total  lack  of  personal  relation  to  life  was 
the  mental  attitude  of  almost  every  woman.  If 
she  was  a  widow,  she  worked  to  make  a  home  for 
her  children,  who,  again  and  again,  so  often  that 
it  ceased  to  attract  attention,  heard  how  much 
harder  life  was  because  they  were  in  it.  This 
seemed  the  accepted  attitude,  and  accounted  for 
the  expression  on  the  faces  of  these  children — a 
puzzled,  hardened  expression  that  blotted  out  all 
suggestion  of  childhood.  That  time  was  an  ele- 
ment in  the  problem  of  life  was  not  accepted. 
That  the  garment  made  at  home  would  last  longer 
and  cost  less  was  conceded ;  but  what  was  the  use 
of  making  things  when  they  could  be  bought  so 
cheaply.  The  total  absence  of  reasoning  powers 
was  shown  here.  To  make  soup  would  mean  stay- 
ing at  home,  thinking  and  planning  for  hours  in 
advance  of  a  meal.  The  soup  would  cost  no  more 
than  steak  and  provide  two  meals,  but  it  would 
mean  loneliness,  when  the  time,  through  igno- 
rance, could  not  be  turned  to  interesting  uses. 


24      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

There  were  women  in  these  alleys,  mothers  of 
grown  children,  who  could  not  tell  a  bias  from  a 
straight  edge ;  who  could  not  put  a  gingham  apron 
together  having  straight  and  bias  selvages.  Be- 
yond sewing  on  occasional  buttons,  there  was  no 
use  in  their  minds  for  needles.  They  had  worked 
in  tin  factories.  They  had  worked  at  all  kinds  of 
employment  that  called  into  play  the  minimum 
amount  of  brains  and  the  maximum  of  muscles. 
Not  one  woman  was  found  who  before  her  mar- 
riage had  worked  in  any  line  of  employment  that 
had  the  slightest  connection  with  the  arts  of  home- 
making.  The  wages  they  earned  was  that  of  un- 
skilled labor,  in  lines  of  employment  known  to  be 
intermittent.  Wages,  large  or  small,  went  into  the 
common  family  fund.  The  future  was  not  a  matter 
of  care.  When  all  in  the  family  worked,  life  was 
lived  merrily ;  when  hard  luck  came,  life  was  lived 
stoically.  This  spirit  went  into  the  home  of  the 
wage-earners  when  they  married.  There  was  far 
less  physical  suffering  than  the  privations  of  their 
lives  made  natural.  Often  these  limitations  were 
self-imposed;  there  was  money  enough  to  give 
life  color  and  purpose,  if  only  there  had  been 
knowledge  to  guide  in  the  adjustment  between  ne- 
cessities and  income;  a  conception  of  time  as  an 
element  in  the  financial  problem. 

The  closer  one  entered  into  the  individual  life, 


AT  THE  BOTTOM  25 

the  more  clearly  was  it  revealed  that  the  problems 
of  poverty  grew  out  of  the  inability  to  see  the  rela- 
tions of  things,  to  comprehend  life  in  its  entirety. 
Even  after  two  years  of  close  relation  with  these 
people  in  the  alleys,  it  was  with  the  utmost  caution 
and  tact  that  the  subject  of  free  coal  could  be 
broached.  It  was  then  distributed  by  the  city — 
an  intimate  source  of  political  corruption.  A 
large  quantity  of  coal  was  purchased  and  put  in 
the  cellar.  It  was  offered  to  the  tenants  at  the 
same  price  the  grocer  sold  it  by  the  pail,  with  the 
difference  that  it  was  delivered  in  the  rooms. 
First,  pride,  a  desire  to  appear  somewhat  above  the 
neighbors,  moved  to  independence  on  the  coal 
question.  In  two  years'  time  free  coal  was  in  the 
category  of  disgraces  in  the  alley,  and  marked  a 
rising  moral  tide. 

A  young  woman  and  her  husband  were  special 
objects  of  attention  to  the  agents.  They  were 
young,  good-looking,  bright,  and,  when  sober, 
ambitious  as  their  conception  of  life  made  possi- 
ble. Both  drank,  the  woman  more  than  the  man, 
and  she  sank  lower  when  drunk.  For  years  she 
had  spent  more  time  on  the  Island  than  off  it. 
What  could  be  done?  The  whitewashing  and 
painting  of  the  two  hopelessly  barren  rooms 
seemed  to  bring  the  woman  to  a  pause.  It  was 
not  possible  to  get  beer  through  a  neighbor's  child 


26      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

now,  and  until  she  was  drunk  this  woman  would 
not  go  into  a  saloon.  The  clean  alley,  washed 
every  morning,  by  some  process  of  reasoning 
seemed  to  demand  corresponding  effort  indoors, 
and  the  barren  rooms  were  never  dirty  when 
the  woman  was  sober.  Even  this  gave  employ- 
ment to  hands  that  had  never  used  a  needle,  there- 
fore less  time  was  spent  lounging  in  the  doorway 
or  other  rooms.  The  washing  of  clothes,  though 
ragged  and  few,  took  time  and  centered  the  in- 
terest, if  but  for  a  short  time.  The  look  of  utter 
weariness  and  indifference  in  the  face  of  the 
woman  was  slowly  disappearing.  There  was 
really  a  purpose  in  life;  the  four  walls  and  little 
else  that  was  home  required  thought  and  effort. 
Life  had  an  object  at  last.  But  the  devil  of  drink 
was  not  so  easily  conquered;  she  was  gone  one 
morning  from  home.  The  neighbors  explained  to 
the  agents  her  absence,  being  familiar  with  the 
habits  of  the  type.  In  court  she  listened  again  in- 
differently to  'Ten  dollars  or  ten  days."  This  time 
a  woman  came  forward,  paid  the  ten  dollars,  and 
Agnes  was  free.  Surprised,  dumb-stricken,  won- 
dering why,  Agnes  followed  the  friend  home. 
New  clothes,  simple,  suitable,  were  waiting  for 
her.  Then-the  fight  began.  At  times  it  was  hour- 
ly. Work  was  provided  that  the  clumsy,  un- 
trained hands  could  do.      The  proceeds  were  to 


AT  THE  BOTTOM  27 

pay  for  a  new  carpet,  that  had  to  be  unrolled  many 
times  to  hold  Agnes  from  the  street.  At  last  it 
was  down,  and  the  two  friends  added  a  rocker  and 
a  picture.  Tom  was  a  new  man,  and  every  penny 
of  his  wages  came  home.  All  this  time  the  pros- 
perity of  the  couple  was  viewed  by  most  of  the 
people  as  due  to  passing  "good  luck."  That  there 
was  a  moral  battle  being  fought  did  not  seem  to 
enter  their  consciousness.  Four  years  later,  on 
the  stairway,  the  writer  saw  Agnes  with  her  beau- 
tiful baby  boy,  her  first-born,  on  her  arm.  The 
comprehension  of  what  the  sight  must  have  been 
on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration  has  always  been 
clearer  when  the  expression  on  the  face  of  Agnes, 
as  she  met  the  woman  who  had  fought  for  her 
salvation  for  time  and  eiernity,  is  recalled.  Two 
years  had  passed  since  Agnes  had  tasted  liquor  in 
any  form.  Her  passionate  devotion  to  her  baby, 
her  new  knowledge  of  the  arts  of  home-making, 
kept  her  so  busy  that  Agnes  was  rarely  a  visitor 
to  her  neighbors,  except  in  the  case  of  sickness. 
Tom's  love  of  liquor  seemed  limited;  largely  a 
matter  of  companionship  or  discouragement. 
When  his  home  became  a  center  of  interest  to  Ag- 
nes, his  buoyant  nature  responded  to  the  new  en- 
vironment. When  liquor  disappeared  from  the 
home,  it  ceased  to  be  a  constant  temptation.  Out- 
side of  his  home  Tom  found  for  a  time  that  his 


28       LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

new  departure  attracted  to  him  unpleasant  atten- 
tion, guying,  teasing,  coaxing,  which  he  met  with 
jokes.  Force  as  an  inducement  to  make  him 
drink  was  met  by  blows ;  and  Tom  struck  heavily. 
The  new  impulse  for  a  better  life  brought  heavy 
social  penalties  on  Tom  and  Agnes.  It  meant 
nothing  in  common  with  those  about  them. 
When  a  man  and  woman  will  neither  treat  nor 
be  treated  at  that  social  level  social  ostracism  fol- 
lows. Their  home  was  the  refuge  of  the  children 
driven  by  frenzied,  drunken  parents  from  their 
own  homes.  What  they  had  they  shared  with  the 
children  when  the  parents  were  on  the  Island. 
When  sickness  came  to  homes  in  the  alleys,  Tom 
and  Agnes  could  be  relied  upon  to  share  and  help 
in  carrying  the  added  burdens.  Tom's  muscles 
and  the  knowledge  of  their  power  saved  many  a 
wife  from  blows  that,  without  Tom,  would  have 
fallen  freely.  Back  of  their  every  effort  stood 
the  two  wise  women  who  were  redeeming  this  cor- 
ner of  the  great  city.  The  day  came  when  Tom 
and  Agnes  realized  the  boy  must  grow  up  in  a  dif- 
ferent neighborhood,  and  Tom  and  Agnes  moved. 
The  making  of  a  laundry  compelled  the  re- 
moval of  a  childless  couple  who  had  occupied  their 
rooms  over  thirty  years.  It  was  impossible  to 
make  them  accept  the  fact  that  the  children  could 
play  in  the  alley  under  the  new  regime.   For  years 


AT  THE  BOTTOM  29 

the  old  woman  and  her  stick  were  familiar  to  the 
sight  and  the  feelings  of  the  children  of  the  alley. 
"I'm  in  Dixie's  Land.  Dixie  ain't  home!"  had 
been  shouted  under  their  windows,  at  their  room 
door,  which  was  very  near  the  alley  door,  to  bring 
them  out  in  torrents  of  rage.  As  age  made  the 
old  couple  less  fleet  and  more  quarrelsome,  the 
daring  of  the  children  grew,  and  any  time  of  the 
day  or  night  the  conflict  between  the  old  couple 
and  the  children,  in  which  parents  figured,  was 
a  possibility.  Peace  became  impossible.  The  de- 
cision was  final;  the  old  couple  must  go;  their 
rooms  were  necessary  to  the  new  improvements. 
It  was  pathetic  to  discover  that  no  amount  of  per- 
suasion would  make  the  old  couple  live  north  of 
Roosevelt  Street;  it  meant  a  lowering  in  their 
social  world.  "I've  always  lived  respectable,  and 
I  always  will.  I  would  not  live  in  that  block,"  an- 
nounced the  old  woman,  with  conscious  pride. 
Even  the  alley,  it  was  found,  had  standards  of 
residence,  a  line  that  must  not  be  crossed,  to  main- 
tain respectability. 

By  this  time  the  mental  attitude  of  every  wo- 
man in  the  alleys  had  changed  toward  her  home. 
Positive  determination  to  overcome  inertia,  or 
ambition  to  excel,  it  was  impossible  to  create.  In- 
nate predilections  were  the  chief  factor  in 
individual     development     among     the     women. 


30      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

What  a  woman  liked  to  do  she  attempted  to  learn 
how  to  do,  or  what  she  found  she  could  do 
most  easily.  Some  would  learn  to  cook  who 
absolutely  refused  to  sew;  some  would  sew 
who  refused  to  cook ;  some  would  take  care  of  the 
babies  while  the  mothers  were  learning  who 
would  neither  cook  nor  sew,  feeling  they  could  do 
both  well  enough ;  these  it  was  impossible  to  make 
home-makers.  The  shackles  of  the  past  could 
never  be  thrown  off  wholly  by  the  home-makers 
in  the  alleys.  The  children  responded;  could  be 
won  by  personal  affection,  by  prizes,  by  the  moth- 
er's insistence.  For  it  was  soon  learned  that  nim- 
ble fingers  in  the  home  lightened  the  mother's 
work ;  but  the  mothers  were  the  unwilling  victims 
of  their  own  past. 

The  use  of  money  was  the  most  difficult  lesson 
of  all  to  teach.  If  there  was  money,  the  food  was 
bought  lavishly ;  pennies  were  given  freely  to  the 
children.  If  there  was  no  money,  the  barrenness 
was  accepted  even  cheerfully.  Wages  were  given 
at  the  maximum  weekly  amount  remembered.  No 
deductions  were  made  for  idle  days.  It  requires 
a  knowledge  of  advanced  arithmetic  to  adjust  in- 
telligently forty  weeks  of  wages  to  fifty-two  weeks 
of  expenses.  It  requires  more  than  an  elementary 
knowledge  of  arithmetic  to  adjust  five  days' 
wages   to  the  seven   days'   expenses,   fixed   and 


AT  THE  BOTTOM  31 

emergency,  of  a  growing  family.  When  a  week 
comes  that  brings  six  or  seven  days'  wages,  is  it 
a  marvel  that  in  view  of  the  many  weeks  of  im- 
posed restrictions  this  week  of  wealth  should  be 
welcomed  as  a  period  of  freedom  from  care?  That 
the  money  should  be  lavishly  used?  It  takes  the 
ability  to  think,  to  connect  cause  and  effect,  imag- 
ination, to  see  possible  results,  memory  of  expe- 
riences to  hold  men  and  women  constantly  in 
check,  and  this  means  mental  training.  Not  a 
woman  in  the  alley  had  attended  school  regularly 
during  even  the  short  period  of  her  school  life; 
each  one  had  gone  to  work  the  moment  she  could 
earn  money.  Neither  she  nor  any  one  about  her 
questioned  the  value  of  the  work  she  found  to  do 
beyond  the  money  it  gave  at  once.  Nobody  ever 
thought  of  the  present  as  in  relation  to  the  future. 
Now  that  she  was  a  mother,  she  met  life  the  same 
way.  Her  children  must  earn  money.  To  make 
sacrifices  that  their  wage-earning  capacity  in  the 
future  might  be  greater  would,  if  suggested  to 
her,  have  been  merely  an  evidence  of  how  little 
the  rich  know  of  life.  What  was  the  estimate  of 
life  these  mothers  in  the  alley  made?  The  differ- 
ences between  them  were  external,  not  mental. 
One  answers  for  nearly  all.  To  get  as  much  com- 
fort out  of  to-day  as  possible  and  to-morrow 
work  hard,  and  be  careful.     To  the  majority  that 


32       LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

to  be  used  to-morrow  never  came.  When  plenty 
came,  it  was  always  to-day — a  glad,  free  day  that 
might  never  come  again. 

At  the  end  of  four  years  but  four  of  the  tenants 
of  the  alleys  who  were  tenants  when  the  lease  was 
executed  had  been  evicted.  The  death  rate  had 
lowered  from  85  to  22  per  cent.  The  tenants 
rarely  appeared  in  the  police  courts.  Wife-beat- 
ing created  excitement  and  indignation.  But  in 
spite  of  the  awakening,  a  moral,  mental,  physical 
inertia,  stagnation,  held  more  than  the  majority 
of  the  tenants  in  control.  There  was  spasmodic 
response ;  but  the  painful  truth  had  to  be  accepted 
that  there  must  be  redemptive  power  within  to 
respond  to  redemptive  conditions  without  before 
the  home  could  be  vitalized  with  the  spirit  of  hope 
and  energy.  Fifty  years  and  more  of  neglect  and 
indifference  cannot  be  overcome  in  five  years  of 
moral  activity  exerted  to  overcome  the  evils  man 
neglected  to  prevent. 

The  alleys  are  gone;  some  tenants  drifted  to 
other  scenes,  more  settled  in  the  tall,  dark  tene- 
ments that  have  sprung  up  through  the  whole  dis- 
trict, the  worst  type  erected  in  New  York.  The 
rear  buildings  abound  even  back  of  the  tall  fac- 
tories, reached  by  dark,  noisome  alleys.  No 
amount  of  care  or  repair  could  save  the  old 
houses.     They  have  gone  the  way  of  all  material 


AT  THE  BOTTOM  33 

things.  Their  history  is  a  part  of  the  social  and 
political  history  of  New  York. 

How  slowly  moral  sentiment  grows  in  a  large 
city  is  shown  by  the  years  that  elapsed  before 
active  measures  were  taken  to  redeem  what  was 
known  as  a  plague  spot,  a  menace  to  the  body  poli- 
tic, a  constant  source  of  moral  degeneracy. 

The  Citizens'  Association,  organized  in  1864, 
through  its  Council  of  Hygiene  and  Public 
Health,  districted  the  city  for  special  investiga- 
tion by  sanitary  experts.  One  of  these  gives  a 
large  part  of  his  report  to  Gotham  Court,  and 
presents  sectional  drawings  to  show  the  impossi- 
bility of  securing  proper  sanitary  conditions  for 
the  people  living  in  the  notorious  houses.  It 
seems  incredible  that  these  conditions  once  known 
should  not  have  aroused  public  interest  to  the 
point  of  action.  Nothing  was  done.  The  physi- 
cal and  moral  degeneracy  continued  until  1880, 
when  a  few  private  individuals  made  the  experi- 
ment of  redemption.  Even  this  came  when  the 
houses  had  gone  beyond  the  point  of  reclaim- 
ing. On  the  site  of  the  old  buildings  rises  a  new 
business  building. 

Not  far  away  two  of  the  most  brutal  and  atro- 
cious murders  of  recent  years  in  New  York  have 
occurred.  In  July,  1901,  three  blocks  from  the 
old  buildings,  in  broad  daylight,  a  man  known 


34      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

to  be  the  collecting  agent  for  property  in  the 
neighborhood  was  robbed  by  three  members  of  a 
well-known  gang.  The  children  are  thin,  pre- 
cocious. Their  language,  even  in  their  play,  is 
vulgar,  coarse,  profane.  Babies  have  at  their 
command  strange  oaths,  probably  never  heard 
elsewhere.  The  streets  are  neglected,  the  side- 
walks uneven  and  broken.  For  almost  half  a  cen- 
tury this  region  has  had  a  reputation  peculiar  to 
itself.  Efforts  have  been  made  to  reach  the  peo- 
ple, but  they  have  not  been  persistent.  Even  the 
church  efforts  are  perfunctory,  as  though  faith 
as  to  the  redemptive  power  in  this  people  did  not 
exist. 

This  fact  remains :  within  the  boundaries  of 
this  region  lives  a  community  that  is  shaping  the 
political  control  of  New  York  City  and  State,  and 
will  for  years  to  come.  It  has  its  traditions  of 
loyalty ;  it  has  fixed  standards  of  its  own  peculiar 
privileges ;  its  standards  of  rights.  The  very  po- 
lice of  the  region  expect  certain  things  to  occur; 
misdemeanors  of  a  certain  character  that  would 
bring  punishment  anywhere  else  are  passed  by 
here;  they  are  part  of  the  civilization  of  the  re- 
gion. Snuggled  down  under  the  shadow  of  the 
bridge  and  the  elevated  road,  a  center  of  business 
interests  which  the  moral  standards  of  the  resi- 
dents do  not  affect,  because  their  activities,  other 


AT  THE  BOTTOM  3s 

than  of  the  muscles,  are  not  exercised  until  carts, 
drays,  drivers,  clerks,  proprietors  have  gone 
northward  or  across  the  river.  The  community 
lives  within  itself,  has  created  its  own  standards, 
and  is  New  York  in  its  own  estimation. 

Writing  of  the  people  in  this  section  in  1865,  a 
sanitary  expert  quotes  with  an  apology  a  medical 
term  common  in  the  hospitals  and  dispensaries  as 
a  disease  of  the  people  in  this  section,  "tenement- 
house  rot."  The  term  has,  perhaps,  in  the  in- 
terests of  civilization,  died  out;  but  no  one  can 
walk  through  these  streets,  observing  the  faces  of 
the  people,  and  not  realize  that  the  old,  unsanitary, 
germ-laden  tenements  of  this  section  have  pro- 
duced a  physical  condition  peculiar  to  this  region, 
as  it  has  a  moral  degeneracy  that  is  peculiarly  its 
own.  The  section,  as  a  whole,  has  not  attracted 
the  philanthropist.  He  is  wise  in  his  day  and 
generation  and  puts  forth  his  efforts  where  the 
tide  of  humanity  is  rising,  and  not  falling,  even 
though  it  means  three  or  four  generations  before 
the  tide  is  out. 

New  York  has  a  gospel  all  its  own.  Work 
where  the  crowds  are  greatest,  that  the  printed  re- 
ports may  count  people  in  great  numbers,  for  ye 
gain  dollars  thereby.  New  York  counts  the  rem- 
nant only  at  the  polls,  and  ignores  the  penalty  her 
indifference  imposes  on  her  own  advancement. 


36      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

The  opening  years  of  the  century  hold  promise 
that  there  is  at  least  a  partial  realization  of  the 
solidarity  of  the  interest  of  the  people.  That  con- 
ditions make  for  degradation  in  the  homes  means 
degradation  of  citizens;  and  this  means  burdens 
laid,  not  on  the  sections  where  the  homes  and  the 
citizens  are  found,  but  on  the  whole  city.  What 
altruism  has  not  accomplished,  selfishness  may. 
It  may  be  that  where  all  else  has  failed,  intelligent 
politics  may  redeem,  and  the  section  again  may  be 
the  center  of  the  moral  as  well  as  commercial  ac- 
tivity. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SOCIAL  CENTERS. 

The  centralization  of  the  interests  of  the  tene- 
ment-house population  is  not  understood  by  those 
who  broaden  their  mental,  if  not  their  active,  in- 
terest by  reading  and  travel;  who  in  the  varied 
interest  of  a  broader  life  are  forced  to  see  the  mul- 
tiplicity of  factors  that  enter  into  the  settlement 
of  every  problem.  This  is  what  we  mean  by  know- 
ing the  relation  of  things ;  marking  the  distinction 
between  those  who  see  only  and  those  who  com- 
prehend. The  man  who  is  a  machine  set  in  the 
place  where  he  bears  his  relation  to  the  whole  by 
an  authority  which  he  dares  not  question  loses  all 
opportunity  to  comprehend  his  relation  to  that 
whole.  He  is  interested  in  immediate  results  as  re- 
lated to  himself  only.  This  is  the  relation  which 
the  mass  of  the  tenement-house  workers  and  vot- 
ers bear  to  life. 

The  people  of  whole  sections  live  entirely  with- 
in certain  geographical  lines,  every  interest  cen- 
tered within  these  limits. 

The  race  sections  are  logical,  based  on  the  law 


38      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

of  natural  selection ;  of  family  interest.  The  first 
generation  of  immigrants  naturally  hold  the  sec- 
ond generation  of  home-makers  near  them,  and 
these  together  hold  the  relatives  and  friends  who 
follow.  Three  generations  are  not  infrequently 
found  in  the  same  house,  each  maintaining  its 
own  home.  The  new  arrivals  keep  alive  the  for- 
eign home  traditions,  the  foreign  home  habits  of 
living.  Poverty  and  greed  make  the  people  crowd 
together.  The  last  arrivals  are  taught  what  their 
predecessors  have  learned  of  American  life  and 
law.  The  race  section  perpetuates  itself;  it  re- 
tains all  that  it  can  of  the  old  life,  and  interprets 
the  new  according  to  the  lessons  learned  from  en- 
vironment, and  power  as  it  is  exercised  on  the 
people.  Each  race  section  has  its  own  thorough- 
fare. The  people  on  the  street  use  their  own  lan- 
guage, and  trade  in  shops  of  their  own  country- 
men. In  some  sections  newspapers  are  published 
in  the  language  of  the  section,  giving  prominence 
to  the  local  news.  Were  it  not  for  the  public 
schools,  one  wonders  what  would  be  the  result  of 
this  race  centralization. 

The  writer  once  met  a  man  who  had  voted  for 
twenty-three  years  in  one  ward.  For  sixteen  of 
these  years  he  had  cast  his  vote  from  one  house  in 
Orchard  Street.  He  had  never  been  farther  north 
than  Houston   Street,   farther  south   than   Hes- 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  39 

ter  and  had  never  crossed  the  Bowery.  He 
had  positive  convictions  on  every  subject  relating 
to  the  ward ;  he  knew  the  life  history  of  every  po- 
litical leader  in  that  portion  of  the  city;  could 
rehearse  the  disasters  that  had  followed  every 
man  who  failed  to  fall  in  line  at  the  polls ;  knew 
what  saloon-keepers  were  forced  to  obey  the 
law,  and  who  "didn't  care  a  cent"  for  the  law; 
knew  why  this  man  could  put  his  goods  on  the 
walk  and  why  the  other  man  could  not.  He  pro- 
tected his  own  two  daughters  from  the  evils  of  his 
home  environment  as  he  saw  them;  was  strict  to 
rigorousness  about  their  home-coming;  watched 
the  kind  of  people  who  moved  into  the  house  in 
which  he  lived,  and  doubtless  kept  it  above  the 
average  of  the  neighborhood  by  his  watchfulness. 
But  he  did  not  know  who  was  President  of  the 
United  States,  and  did  not  consider  it  the  busi- 
ness of  the  poor  man.  He  refused  a  "job"  under 
the  city,  because  he  didn't  want  to  be  "beholden." 
It  was  all  right  for  the  man  who  needed  a  job  to 
take  it.  The  only  grievance  the  man  had  was  that 
the  Hebrews  were  crowding  into  the  neighbor- 
hood. This  was  an  invasion  of  his  personal 
rights;  they  had  their  own  place  on  the  south 
side  of  Grand  Street,  as  the  Italians  had  west  of 
the  Bowery,  and  coming  into  that  region  north  of 
Grand  Street  was  an  intrusion  on  the  personal 


4o      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

rights  of  himself  and  his  countrymen.  The  first 
thing  which  would  happen,  if  they — his  own  peo- 
ple— did  not  look  sharp,  would  be  the  Hebrews 
would  have  a  say  in  politics.  The  man's  mental 
attitude  is  typical  of  the  race  settlement,  the  race 
political  rights  theory  in  many  sections  of  New 
York ;  the  difference  is  only  in  the  race  dominant. 
This  man  was  a  porter,  who  for  seventeen 
years  was  employed  in  an  East  Side  department 
store,  working  in  a  sub-cellar  nine  hours  a  day 
for  nine  dollars  a  week.  He  could  not  read, 
though  he  came  to  this  country  when  five  years  of 
age.  He  became  a  wage-earner  at  eleven.  His 
daughters  became  wage-earners  at  fourteen,  hav- 
ing attended  public  schools  until  that  age.  The 
pride  with  which  this  man  referred  to  his  daugh- 
ters' education  made  one  comprehend  the  gradual 
absorption  by  the  foreign  peoples  who  come  to  us 
of  American  ideas.  Those  girls  knew  they  were 
not  educated;  they  had  been  forced  to  contrast 
their  mental  equipment  with  that  of  the  "club  la- 
dies," as  they  called  the  residents  at  the  College 
Settlement,  where  the  club  of  which  they  were 
members  met.  They,  too,  had  been  satisfied  until 
brought  into  relationship  with  those  who  repre- 
sented another  world.  The  revelation,  because  of 
contact  with  the  minds  of  these  college-trained 
women,  showed  them,  so  far  as  they  could  com- 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  41 

prehend  it,  their  own  lack  of  mental  training,  the 
first  step  in  their  true  education. 

Women  are  by  nature  more  conservative  than 
men ;  they  cling  longer  to  early  traditions  and  hab- 
its; find  it  more  difficult  to  adopt  new  habits  of 
thought.  The  more  closely  they  are  surrounded 
by  people  of  their  own  way  of  life,  their  own  hab- 
its of  thinking,  the  more  strongly  intrenched  are 
they  in  the  customs  and  habits  of  their  native 
country,  the  less  are  the  homes  they  regulate 
modified  by  the  new  environment.  The  result  is 
that  whole  sections  of  New  York  to-day  are  as 
foreign  as  the  villages  from  which  the  people  in 
them  came.  There  are  women  in  New  York 
whose  children  and  grandchildren  were  born  in 
the  city  who  cannot  speak  English,  nor  under- 
stand it  beyond  the  merest  assent  or  dissent. 
Their  lives  in  old  age  are  pitiable. 

A  sweet,  motherly  German  once  said  to  the 
writer,  and  but  a  short  time  ago :  "I  am  so  lonely. 
I  cannot  speak  English.  I  never  learn  it.  I  sit 
in  my  daughter's  house,  where  German  is  not 
used.  The  children  all  want  to  be  Americans; 
they  will  not  talk  German.  When  I  sit  at  the 
table,  I  never  speak.  They  all  talk,  but  I  do  not 
understand.  Sometimes  I  ask,  and  the  children 
say  they  have  not  time  to  tell  me.  They  buy  only 
the  English  papers,  and  so  I  cannot  read.     I  wish 


42     LEAVEN    IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

I  had  learned  English  when  I  first  came.  I  was 
young  then,  but  I  had  eight  children  after  I  came 
here,  and  I  did  everything  for  them.  I  could  not 
take  the  time,  I  thought.  I  see  now  the  children 
could  have  taught  me.  Now  they  have  not  the 
time."  This  woman  was  a  German  in  her  sym- 
pathies, her  interests,  her  standards.  Positive 
race  antagonism  existed  between  her  and  her  fam- 
ily. She  measured  everything  by  German  life  and 
rule,  and  lived  a  critic  among  a  people  her  own 
only  in  blood.  In  answer  to  the  question,  she  ex- 
plained that  her  husband  learned  English  for  his 
"work."  The  family  attended  the  mission  church 
when  they  attended  church.  She  attended  the 
German  services,  but  the  rest  of  the  family,  even 
her  husband,  the  English  services.  Her  constant 
plaint  was :  ''I  am  so  lonely.  Some  day  I  never 
speak  all  day.  At  the  table  they  speak  English." 
Hundreds  of  women  like  this  one  sit  in  homes 
in  New  York  in  which  they  have  no  part, 
barred  out  by  the  fact  that  they  speak  a  foreign 
tongue.  One  of  the  mistakes  made  in  even  our 
church  work  has  been  the  maintaining  of  distinc- 
tive church  services  in  a  foreign  tongue.  In  so 
far  as  the  churches  have  done  this,  they  have  been 
an  obstruction  to  good  citizenship  for  time,  what- 
ever they  may  have  accomplished  for  eternity, 
for  the  people  they  call  their  own. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  43 

One  of  the  most  earnest  of  missionary  workers 
in  New  York,  an  American  citizen  born  in  Italy, 
protested  vigorously  to  the  writer  on  the  policy  of 
maintaining  church  services  in  New  York  in  a  for- 
eign tongue.  "You  cannot  make  a  united  people 
using  many  languages.  I  would  preach  that  to 
the  people  all  the  time.  I  use  English  words  in 
my  sermons  to  my  own  people,  and  I  tell  them  to 
learn  English;  it  is  better  for  them  in  business. 
The  women  ought  to  learn,  for  they  lose  their  chil- 
dren. They  go  away  from  them  because  they  do 
not  speak  the  English.  In  New  York  they  are  the 
victims  of  oppression,  my  people,  because  they 
cannot  speak  English.  They  have  to  bow  the 
head  to  the  yoke  because  they  are  foreigners  in  a 
strange  land  in  which  they  vote.  It  is  a  great 
wrong  to  them  and  to  the  country.  It  makes  the 
'boss.'  " 

The  first  interest  of  the  mother  in  the  tenement, 
as  of  the  mother  everywhere,  is  the  support  of  her 
children;  to  get  for  them  all  that  she  can.  She 
would  prefer  that  her  husband  should  be  honest, 
which  may  mean  that  the  only  dishonesty  of 
which  she  has  any  comprehension  is  stealing 
money  or  other  tangible  property.  In  politics  the 
tenement-house  women  have  only  a  secondary  in- 
terest. They  accept  without  question  the  state- 
ments of  their  male  relatives  as  to  issues  and  men. 


44      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

Even  this  degree  of  interest  represents  only  the 
most  intelligent  of  the  tenement-house  women. 
The  charge  that  a  man  used  his  political  position 
and  affiliations  to  further  his  own  advancement, 
that  he  purchased  the  votes  and  enthusiasms  of 
less  clever  voters,  would  mean  to  the  women  edu- 
cated in  their  conception  of  right  and  wrong  un- 
der the  systems  of  machine  politics  that  the  man 
was  intelligent  and  trying  to  do  the  best  he  could 
for  his  family  and  his  friends.  To  say  that  he 
refused  to  rally  voters  to  support  the  party  that 
gave  him  a  position  because  he  was  convinced 
that  the  party  was  dishonest  in  the  use  it  made  of 
the  victory  it  gained  at  the  polls,  would  arouse  the 
deepest  contempt  for  the  man.  He  would  be  con- 
sidered not  only  untrue  to  his  family,  but  to  his 
friends.  Had  he  remained  in  close  relation  to 
the  politicians  who  gave  him  his  chance,  he  would 
not  only  provide  for  his  family,  but  his  friends 
would  have  the  benefit  of  his  influence;  he  could 
give  them  a  chance  in  time. 

The  man  of  brains  they  see  drop  his  tools,  take 
off  his  overalls  and  stand  in  high  hat,  and  even- 
tually frock-coat,  the  center  of  a  crowd  of  men 
who  smile  at  his  nod,  though  they  worked  shoulder 
to  shoulder  but  a  short  time  ago — in  a  trench,  per- 
haps; yes,  even  came  over  in  the  same  ship  with 


THE    PAST,    PRESENT    AND    MIDDLE    PERIOD. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  45 

him.  The  women  do  not  understand  the  process 
of  evolution,  but  they  see  the  results.  They  soon 
know  that  from  street  sweeper  to  car  conductor, 
the  man  who  has  become  a  politician  under  a 
strong  partisan  government  regulates,  and  often 
decides,  the  wage-earning  opportunities  of  the 
greater  portion  of  the  men  in  the  tenement-house 
sections.  They  learn,  these  women,  that  it  is  not 
a  question  of  how  faithful  the  worker  is  in  the 
discharge  of  his  duty  that  insures  him  work,  but 
that  it  is  some  mysterious  influence  they  call  "poli- 
tics," that  means  work  and  wages  or  no  work 
and  no  wages,  and  suffering.  This  conception 
of  the  relation  of  the  petty  politician  to  the  voters' 
chance  to  earn  even  a  meager  and  uncertain  living 
under  the  sway  of  his  influence  rarely  excites 
more  than  passing  indignation  from  the  women 
who  suffer  most  because  of  the  system.  When 
the  women  of  the  politician's  family  grow  arro- 
gant and  snobbish,  then  the  floods  of  eloquence 
break  loose  for  a  time,  and  the  listener  may  learn 
many  things  of  which  he  would  otherwise  be  igno- 
rant. The  increased  power  of  the  petty  hench- 
man rarely  enables  him  to  change  the  way  of  liv- 
ing of  his  family.  Sometimes  he  does  not  when 
he  can,  for  he  knows  that  he  increases  his  power 
as  he  lives  on  the  level  of  the  average  voter  in  his 


46      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

district.  The  less  conscience  he  has,  the  more 
patient  he  is  in  waiting  for  the  day  when  his  dis- 
trict is  only  one  factor  in  his  political  strength. 
Even  the  little  children  reveal  deference  to  the 
family  of  the  man  who  is  known  to  have  "pull." 
There  came  to  an  East  Side  library  one  afternoon 
a  little  girl  better  dressed  than  any  child  who  had 
yet  appeared  there.  She  was  impudent,  noisy, 
aggressive.  In  the  game-room  she  cheated  in  the 
games,  and  finally  broke  up  several  games  of 
checkers  and  dominoes  by  pushing  over  the 
boards.  No  child  resented  this.  The  little  girl 
when  spoken  to  seemed  astonished  by  the  repri- 
mand. As  she  was  leaving,  the  writer  said  to 
her:  "I  am  sorry,  little  girl,  but  I  shall  have  to 
tell  you  that  you  must  not  come  here  again  unless 
you  mean  to  obey ;  you  must  not  talk  in  the  read- 
ing-room, and  in  the  games  you  must  play  fair.  I 
hope  I  shall  not  have  to  tell  you  not  to  come  here 
again."  The  child  stared  in  astonishment.  She 
went  out  on  the  street.  In  a  few  minutes  several 
little  girls  who  had  frequented  the  rooms  for 
months  came  running  back  in  great  excitement, 
one  saying  breathlessly :  "Why,  that  little  girl's 
father  is  a  school  trustee ;  she  does  just  as  she  likes 
in  school."  "Yes,"  added  another,  "and  now  she 
says  she  won't  come  here  any  more.  She's  awful 
mad."    From  her  point  of  view  this  was  a  calam- 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  47 

ity.  "Well,  I  hope  she  will  not  come  if  she  can- 
not behave,"  was  the  comment  made.  The  chil- 
dren stood  aghast.  The  trustee  system  had  been 
abolished  in  New  York  at  least  two  years  when 
this  incident  occurred.  Later  the  writer  found 
that  the  father  was  in  the  council  of  Tammany 
Hall. 

A  boy  of  the  same  neighborhood  rang  the  bell, 
interfered  with  children  leaving  the  house,  and 
broke  the  windows.  The  time  for  kindly  persua- 
sion ended.  When  the  members  of  a  woman's 
club  in  that  section  using  that  house  were  con- 
sulted, it  was  made  perfectly  clear  to  the  writer 
that  worse  troubles  would  follow  if  the  boy  were 
arrested,  for  he  would  not  be  detained  and  he 
would  be  more  ugly  than  ever.  His  father  was  a 
ward  leader  who  had  formerly  been  a  street 
sweeper,  then  foreman  of  the  gang,  etc.,  going 
through  the  gradations  that  mark  the  making  of 
the  minor  "boss."  This  boy  bullied  little  chil- 
dren, stole  their  toys,  would  break  up  their  games. 
Yet  to  have  him  join  in  their  play  was  evidently 
an  honor  which  they  bore  much  to  retain.  He 
was  only  fourteen,  yet  he  was  found  to  be  the 
leader  of  a  gang  of  boys  in  the  most  disgusting 
immoralities.  Even  this  did  not  rouse  the  moth- 
ers of  the  neighborhood  to  fight  for  their  chil- 
dren's protection.     The  boy  was  spreading  immo- 


48      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

rality  of  a  disgusting  nature  through  a  whole 
neighborhood.  The  evil  he  wrought  was  told  in 
tears  in  private,  but  denied  in  public  through  fear 
of  the  father's  power  in  preventing  the  accusers' 
husbands  and  sons  from  getting  work — one  re- 
sult of  the  Tammany  system  that  enslaves  homes 
and  blasts  the  innocence  of  little  children  in  New 
York. 

A  clever,  hard-working  Irish  woman  was  once 
telling  the  writer  the  story  of  her  life  and  that  of 
her  children.  At  the  time  she  was  deeply  inter- 
ested in  the  future  of  four  nephews,  who  were  the 
motherless  sons  of  her  brother.  Out  of  her  ex- 
perience with  sons-in-law  she  enunciated  her  con- 
clusions :  "I  tell  me  brother,  don't  let  them  b'ys 
learn  politics;  it's  a  mighty  poor  thrade.  Sure, 
when  Tammany's  in  they're  all  right;  but  when 
Tammany's  out,  where  are  they?  Sure,  it's  a 
mighty  poor  thrade,  as  I  learnt  to  me  sorrer.  Bet- 
ther  have  them  blacksmiths,  sez  I,  like  their 
grandfather  at  home.  I  do  hope  he  be's  listening 
to  me,  for  they're  foine  b'ys."  It  will  be  easier 
for  the  four  "b'ys"  to  learn  politics  than  any  other 
"thrade,"  for  it  is  an  open  union  making  one  de- 
mand, obedience  to  the  "boss." 

To  this  woman  Tammany  was  an  employer 
good  to  the  poor  man — a  doctrine  that  is  taught  to 
the  smallest  boy.      He  breathes  it  in  the  air;  he 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  49 

nurses  it  in  the  milk  that  nourishes  him.  As  he 
gets  older  he  adds  a  new  article  to  his  faith.  The 
Tammany  system  is  the  protector  of  his  liberties. 
It  does  not  restrict  him  in  his  right  of  private 
judgment.  As  one  studies  the  race  sections,  the 
discovery  is  made  that  hundreds  of  votes  are  cast 
for  Tammany  candidates  in  the  belief  that  ob- 
noxious restrictions  on  the  sale  of  liquor  on  Sun- 
days will  be  removed,  or  that  the  laws  will  not  be 
enforced.  The  hope  of  raising  the  moral  tone  of 
the  voters  is  futile  while  any  portion  of  them  jus- 
tify the  casting  of  a  ballot  for  the  sole  reason  that 
it  will  make  it  possible  for  the  voter  to  break  the 
law  with  impunity.  The  most  demoralizing  leg- 
islation is  that  which  makes  a  man  a  sneak  as  well 
as  a  law-breaker.  May  the  day  be  hastened  when 
no  man  who  stands  in  moral  rectitude  in  the  pres- 
ence of  man  and  God  will  be  forced  to  maintain 
what  he  believes  his  rights  in  defiance  of  the  law. 
We  are  a  cosmopolitan  country,  owing  power  and 
greatness  to  the  sons  and  daughters  of  many 
lands.  The  Puritan  conception  of  government 
is  out  of  place  to-day.  The  larger  conception  of 
man  not  controlled  by  the  law,  but  the  master  in 
himself  of  the  restraints  it  would  place  upon  him, 
is  the  American  conception  of  manhood,  and  to- 
ward this  the  best  legislative  action  must  trend. 
Thinking  men  and  women  who  have  studied  the 


5° 


LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 


social  conditions  of  New  York  know  that  no  more 
calamitous  influence  is  set  in  motion  in  New 
York  than  a  sense  of  injustice  that  protects  and 
justifies  to  the  people  the  breaking  of  a  law. 
When  this  goes  farther,  and  any  considerable 
number  of  the  citizens  combine  for  the  purpose  of 
overcoming  it  by  defying  or  by  ignoring  it,  the 
foundations  of  the  government  are  threat- 
ened. It  is  time  for  fanaticism  to  feel  the  press- 
ure of  broad-minded  balanced  public  opinion.  A 
law  administered  at  the  demand  and  according  to 
the  conscience  of  people  unaffected  by  its  admin- 
istration, used  by  them  against  an  equally  intelli- 
gent class  who  feel  that  personal  liberty  has  been 
curtailed  at  the  expense  of  their  right  of  judg- 
ment, is  class  legislation.  No  greater  evil  influ- 
ence has  been  active  in  New  York  than  the  creat- 
ing of  a  sentiment  that  endorsed  the  breaking  of 
the  liquor  laws.  It  has  been  a  prolific  source  of 
blackmail ;  it  has  enabled  politicians,  who  live  at 
the  public  expense,  to  pose  to  men  whose  personal 
right  of  judgment  had  been  curtailed  as  the  apos- 
tles of  freedom.  The  short-sighted  friends  of 
temperance  have  by  their  misdirected  activities 
created  political  capital  for  the  men  who  in  official 
life  have  made  New  York's  problems. 

Legislation  enacted  without  the  will  of  the  peo- 
ple governed  is  provocative  of  two  things :  con- 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  51 

tempt  and  defiance  of  the  law ;  unrest  that  makes 
for  antagonism  to  government.  The  lower  in  the 
scale  of  reason  the  voter  is,  the  less  able  he  is  to 
get  any  point  of  view  but  his  own.  His  compre- 
hension of  the  rights  of  others  depends  on  the 
comprehension  of  his  rights  expressed  in  the  law 
designed  for  his  regeneration.  He  certainly 
never  goes  higher  in  the  scale  of  reason  while  he 
defies  the  law  in  satisfying  his  sense  of  justice  and 
freedom ;  he  cannot  rise  in  the  scale  of  living 
while  he  stoops  to  acts  he  would  avoid  if  his  sense 
of  justice  were  not  outraged.  He  justifies  his  act 
because  of  his  sense  of  oppression.  He  cannot  re- 
spond to  any  effort  looking  to  the  general  good  of 
the  city  while  he  smarts  under  a  sense  of  liberties 
curtailed  by  the  very  people  who  ask  for  his  help. 
When  President  Roosevelt  was  Police  Commis- 
sioner he  enforced  the  law  governing  the  sale  of 
liquor  on  Sunday.  The  city  was  torn  asunder 
for  weeks.  The  discussion  filled  the  columns  of 
the  daily  press.  The  fact,  after  weeks  of  discus- 
sion with  one  group  of  tenement-house  women — 
all  the  wives  of  skilled  workers — was  finally  made 
clear  that  the  law  was  at  fault,  if  fault  there  was, 
not  the  Commissioner.  The  law,  if  bad,  must  be 
repealed ;  but  as  long  as  it  was  the  law  it  must  be 
enforced.  During  this  discussion  much  light  was 
obtained.    One  woman  told  how  cleverly  the  law 


52      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

was  evaded  by  the  liquor  dealer  two  doors  from 
her  house.  He  hired  the  back  room  on  the  top 
floor  of  the  house  next  door,  keeping  the  liquor 
in  a  closet.  The  men  in  the  secret  entered  the 
house  two  doors  distant,  went  up  to  the  roof  and 
down  the  scuttle  to  the  room  where  the  liquor 
was  to  be  had.  Some  of  the  group  listened  to 
her  description  with  flashing  eyes.  When  she  fin- 
ished she  was  given  to  understand  that  she  had 
played  the  part  of  traitor.  It  was  all  right  for 
her  to  do  it.  She  was  safe.  Her  husband  was 
in  a  good,  independent  position;  it  made  no  dif- 
ference to  him  how  much  trouble  came  because  of 
her  "telling  tales."  To  others  it  was  a  disgrace 
that  men  who  had  only  a  few  cents  to  spend  for  a 
little  pleasure  with  their  friends  should  have  to 
sneak  like  thieves,  as  one  of  the  women  expressed 
it.  All  condemned  having  the  liquor  in  their  own 
homes  in  quantities,  as  they  condemned  the  illegal 
selling.  "When  a  man  sneaks  in  like  that  he 
stays  longer  and  spends  more  than  when  he  can 
walk  in  openly  and  walk  out  again  as  he  does 
other  days.  When  he  has  it  in  the  house  he  never 
stops  treating  and  drinking  until  it's  gone." 
The  "free  lunch"  was  deplored;  but  every  one  of 
the  forty-five  women  decided  that  it  was  the  only 
meal  fit  to  eat  that  hundreds  of  laboring  men  ever 
had;  that  men  were  forced  to  eat  at  lunch  coun- 


THE  DEVELOPMENT 


S3 


ters  in  barrooms  and  buy  liquor  who  would  never 
go  there  if  their  mothers  and  wives  knew  how  to 
cook.  They  claimed  that  the  women  would  cook 
for  their  families  if  they  knew  how.  They  did 
not  know  how.  They  were  forced  to  go  to  work 
in  factories  as  soon  as  they  left  school,  and  never 
had  a  chance  to  learn  anything  about  housekeep- 
ing ;  their  mothers  never  knew  how  to  keep  house. 
Could  a  stronger  argument  for  domestic  science 
teaching  in  our  public  schools  be  advanced? 

When  the  High  License  bill  was  before  the 
Legislature  at  Albany  several  years  ago,  the  writer 
was  asked  to  speak  at  a  mothers'  meeting  in  one 
of  the  poorest  sections  of  what  was  then  the  city 
of  Brooklyn.  On  her  way  to  the  mission  she 
counted  nineteen  liquor  saloons  on  three  blocks; 
in  every  case  they  were  on  the  lower  floor  of  a 
tenement  house.  The  hall  was  over  a  pork  and 
provision  store;  a  loft  without  any  attempt  at 
more  than  broom  cleanliness,  walls  bare,  grimy, 
and  seeming  to  ooze  grease.  The  atmosphere  of 
smoked  meat  was  sickening.  Nothing  in  the  way 
of  a  shelter  could  have  been  more  barren  and  re- 
pellent, yet  it  was  a  mission  maintained  by  a 
church. 

About  one  hundred  women — the  wives  of  day 
laborers  and  longshoremen — were  present.  Some 
were  bareheaded:   several   with   babies   in   their 


54       LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

arms.  The  subject  chosen  was  the  High  License 
bill.  It  was  a  discussion.  At  least  ten  of  the 
women  spoke.  The  scene  will  never  be  forgotten. 
One  woman,  about  thirty,  after  listening  intent- 
ly, rose  with  a  baby  on  her  arm,  and  turn- 
ing passionately  to  those  in  the  hall,  said : 
"Why  don't  yer  talk  honest?  Every  one  of  us 
drink.  Some  of  us,  not  many,  drink  because  we 
love  it.  Most  of  us  drink  because  we're  discour- 
aged and  don't  know  what  else  to  do.  We're 
fools;  it  don't  help  us;  it  makes  it  worse.  Some 
of  us  would  never  touch  it  if  it  were  not  brought 
to  us.  We  know  that  anything  that  would  take 
away  the  drink  from  our  doors  would  save  us. 
Drive  them  out !"  She  turned  to  the  platform  ap- 
pealingly.  "Drive  them  out,  so  that  we,  yes,  and 
the  men,  would  have  to  walk  four  or  five  blocks 
to  them,  and  we'll  be  different.  It  is  easy  sending 
the  children  now.  Make  it  harder!  Make  it 
harder!" 

"Shall  we  close  them?" 

"You  couldn't  do  it,"  she  said.  "You  couldn't 
do  that.  Make  it  cost  more  to  start  them,  and 
there  won't  be  so  many.  They'll  be  farther  apart, 
and  they  won't  try  so  hard  to  make  us  drink. 
Many  a  woman  has  learned  to  drink  because  she 
had  to  pass  the  holes  to  get  to  her  home.    Tell  the 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  $$ 

truth  like  me,   or   say   whether   I'm   telling   the 
truth !"  was  her  appeal  to  the  audience. 

The  flood-gates  were  opened.  Every  woman 
agreed  with  the  first  speaker  that  the  saloon  could 
never  be  abolished ;  it  could  be  regulated.  Beer, 
they  thought,  to  most  women  was  a  greater  temp- 
tation than  strong  liquors.  The  number  of  sa- 
loons near  their  homes  they  thought  the  heaviest 
burden  the  poor  man's  family  had  to  bear.  They 
understood  perfectly  that  the  brewers  paid  for  the 
licenses,  and  that  the  saloons  were  the  meeting 
places  where  votes  were  controlled.  They  thought 
the  saloons  ought  to  be  open  at  least  Sunday  after- 
noon, but  they  would  have  them  close  earlier  Sat- 
urday night.  They  thought  that  any  law  that 
made  a  man  a  sneak  to  get  a  drink  was  an  evil. 
They  saw  that  such  a  law  enabled  the  politician  to 
say  which  man  could  sell  liquor  and  which  could 
not.  One  of  them,  who  could  neither  read  nor 
write,  had  discovered  that  the  saloons  selling  a 
certain  brewer's  beer  had  more  freedom  than  any 
of  the  saloons  selling  other  beers;  they  thought 
the  saloon-keepers  paid  either  in  money  or  drinks 
for  the  votes  of  the  men  who  frequented 
their  places  in  the  interest  of  the  politicians  who 
owned  the  saloons  or  protected  them.  There  was 
not  the  slightest  evidence  that  one  woman  there 


S6     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

saw  any  dishonesty  in  the  system.  There  were  no 
principles  in  politics,  only  men.  Things  re- 
mained with  them  the  same  no  matter  who  was 
elected.  It  was  a  district  which  was  under  the 
control  of  one  party,  having  an  unquestioned  ma- 
jority, which  steadily  increased  through  the  ef- 
forts of  a  shrewd  leader  who  had  no  visible  means 
of  support. 

The  section  in  which  this  group  of  women  lived 
was  a  long,  narrow  strip  bordering  on  the  East 
River.  The  residences  of  a  population  each  occu- 
pying its  own  house  at  this  time  held  the 
reeking  tenements  in  check  on  the  east.  Within 
ten  years  this  has  been  wholly  changed.  The 
handsome  old  residences  have  become  tenement 
houses,  overcrowded,  uncared  for,  occupied  by 
people  now  at  the  level  of  former  despised  neigh- 
bors. The  better  class  of  the  laborers'  families 
have  left  the  houses  bordering  on  the  river,  and 
these  have  been  given  over  to  the  poorest  and  most 
hopeless  of  the  day  laborers.  There  is  a  thor- 
oughfare which  has  stores  brilliantly  lighted  for 
five  blocks.  Every  want  of  the  people  can 
be  supplied  in  them.  The  people,  old  and 
young,  settle  placidly  in  the  region.  It  is  their 
world.  The  language  of  the  little  children 
on  the  streets,  from  early  morning  until  late  at 
night,  is  appalling.      A  kindergarten  was  started, 


A    SOCIAL   CENTER    BECOMES    POLITICAL 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  57 

but  the  people  who  started  it  did  not  have  money 
enough  to  secure  the  right  kind  of  a  room,  nor  to 
make  the  room  attractive,  nor  to  keep  it  so  clean 
that  that  would  in  itself  make  it  more  attractive 
than  the  homes  of  the  children.  It  was  finally 
given  up,  because  even  the  small  amount  expended 
was  not  forthcoming  at  the  end  of  the  third  year. 
It  could  have  had  four  times  the  number  of  chil- 
dren the  room  would  accommodate  at  one  time, 
but  no  one  cared  enough  to  support  it. 

The  half-grown  boys  are  coarse-looking,  use 
profane  and  coarse  language  unknowingly  in 
their  ordinary  conversation  on  the  street.  Their 
attitude  toward  girls  is  brutal.  The  girls  of  this 
section  are  free  in  their  manners,  slangy  and 
coarse  in  their  conversation.  They  earn  the  low- 
est wages  paid  to  women  in  the  factories  and  lofts 
that  abound  in  the  region.  The  schoolhouses 
are  old  and  dark;  the  streets  are  neglected  and 
dirty.  The  smoky,  grimy  mission-room  disap- 
peared long  ago.  Not  one  influence  is  at  work 
to  raise  the  general  moral  tone  of  this  community, 
the  voting  power  of  which  outnumbers  four  to 
one  regions  where  every  influence  in  and  out  of 
the  homes  tends  to  develop  moral  standards  and 
political  intelligence  in  the  same  political  unit. 

The  region  is  a  social  plague  spot,  neglected 
and  allowed  to  spread.     It  does  not  present  as  a 


58     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

special  feature  to  arouse  activity  the  evils  of  the 
"Red  Light"  district,  but  only  the  blasting  influ- 
ence of  a  region  sunk  in  the  apathy  of  deadened 
moral  natures,  killed  by  the  hopelessness  of  chang- 
ing the  environment  of  their  homes  until  it  rep- 
resents all  they  ask  of  life.  The  poverty  of  the 
people  makes  well-nourished  bodies  impossible, 
and  lack  of  physical  power  makes  moral  resistance 
impossible. 

Recently  in  one  of  the  most  crowded  of  the 
tenement-house  sections  of  New  York,  where  the 
grip  of  poverty  holds  degradation,  where  the 
people  live  as  remote  from  American  civiliza- 
tion as  when  in  their  own  land,  the  writer  viewed 
the  parade  in  the  evening  of  the  voters  of  the  dis- 
trict, who  had  been  the  guests  of  the  district 
leader,  a  State  Senator,  at  an  outing.  These  out- 
ings are  the  annual  "round-ups"  of  the  voters. 
The  expenses  of  these  outings  run  into  the  five  fig- 
ures, it  is  said,  in  this  district.  Boats  and  a  grove 
are  hired.  Chowder,  coffee,  sandwiches  and  beer 
are  provided  free.  Games  of  chance,  to  which,  it 
is  whispered,  the  district  leaders  are  not  disinter- 
ested observers,  and  athletics  are  the  features  of 
the  outings.  The  return  at  night  is  an  occasion 
for  fireworks  and  a  parade.  Caps  and  canes  are 
provided  for  the  voters  often ;  sometimes  only  a 
ribbon  badge.     The  expenses  are  met  by  the  sale 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  59 

of  tickets,  which  sometimes  sell  as  high  as  five  dol- 
lars. These  tickets  the  liquor  dealers,  in  fact, 
the  tradesmen  of  all  kinds  in  the  district,  men 
holding  office  under  the  city  government  who  are 
affiliated  with  the  leader  and  the  men  who  hope 
to  secure  rights  or  privileges,  legal  or  illegal, 
through  the  leader's  influence,  know  it  is  wise  to 
purchase.  To  the  mass  of  the  men  of  the  district 
it  means  perhaps  the  one  day  of  freedom  in  the 
year,  when  they  have  the  pleasure  of  enjoying 
drinks  and  food  wholly  at  the  cost  of  another. 

In  this  particular  parade  were  five  thousand 
men,  not  one  thousand  of  whom  bore  the  slightest 
outward  evidence  of  American  citizenship,  but  the 
right  to  vote,  as  their  presence  in  the  column  indi- 
cated. It  scarcely  seemed  possible  that  the  scene 
was  in  America.  Swarthy  women  and  children 
crowded  gayly  decorated  fire-escapes,  crowded  the 
windows,  and  made  movement  impossible  on  the 
streets.  Arches  of  lights,  lanterns  swinging  from 
fire-escapes  and  on  ropes  from  sidewalks  to  roofs, 
were  in  the  colors  of  the  land  from  which  these 
people  came.  The  flags  and  bunting  displayed 
presented  colors  of  a  foreign  land,  with  here  and 
there  the  flag  of  the  country  whose  political  des- 
tiny their  votes  controlled  to  a  large  degree.  The 
next  day  the  white  caps  worn  by  the  men  in  this 
parade  appeared  on  the  heads  of  schoolboys  and 


60     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

working  boys  by  the  hundred,  the  wearers  proud 
to  wear  the  colors  of  the  man  who,  so  far  as  their 
knowledge  or  experience,  or  that  of  their  parents, 
went,  was  the  greatest  man,  the  man  of  the  widest 
range  of  authority,  in  the  United  States.  What  do 
they  care  who  is  at  the  head  of  the  city  govern- 
ment ?  The  men  do  not  need  to  ask  who  is  the  dis- 
trict leader;  he  finds  them  through  his  unpaid 
workers  and  the  coalition  is  accomplished.  Soon 
the  immigrant,  turned  citizen,  understands  the 
principle.  He  gets  work  and  votes  for  the  leader. 
It  is  simple  and  direct.  When  the  extent  of  one's 
knowledge  enables  him  to  handle  a  broom  or  to 
sell  peanuts  or  bananas  in  the  new  country,  and 
that  under  the  supervision  of  a  blue-coated  tyrant 
who  levies  on  the  voter's  cart,  if  not  his  pocket, 
when  and  where  he  pleases,  moral  arguments  in  a 
foreign  tongue  are  not  convincing  to  that  voter. 
He  would  rather  not  submit  to  the  supervision  and 
its  attendant  tax;  he  would  rather  not  have  his 
work  intermittent;  but  he  learns  that  protest  in- 
creases his  evils,  and  he  submits.  The  blue-coated 
tyrant  is  a  friend  of  the  "boss"  who  helped  get  his 
license,  and  it  must  be  right.  Whatever  comes  to 
him,  he  must  not  antagonize  the  "boss."  That  is 
the  first  lesson  he  learns  in  American  citizenship, 
at  the  point  where  it  is  most  effective,  his  wage- 
earning  privileges. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  61 

There  are  leaders  so  strong  and  tactful  that 
year  after  year  their  reign  is  unquestioned.  Only 
the  police  and  the  ambulance  surgeons  know  when 
there  is  an  attempted  revolution — when  the  lead- 
er's right  is  questioned  by  another  would-be 
leader.  There  is  only  one  issue — the  man;  no- 
body cares  for  the  principle — if  there  be  a  differ- 
ence of  principle — involved. 

In  one  of  the  old  sections  of  the  city  in  which 
is  a  ward  that  for  forty  years  has  excelled  in 
crime;  a  section  which  at  the  present  time  pre- 
sents the  meanest  and  lowest  of  the  tenements  in 
New  York;  in  which  there  is  less  effort  to  coun- 
teract the  evils  of  the  environment  of  the  homes 
or  change  the  environment  due  to  the  control  of 
the  "boss"  than  in  any  other  section,  a  political 
feud  culminated  in  the  fall  of  1901,  defeating  the 
man  who  had  been  the  leader  for  years.  It  was 
stated  that  the  man  who  won  had  expended  $35,- 
000;  the  man  who  lost,  $12,000  in  the  struggle. 
This  is  a  section  where  poverty  is  the  universal 
inheritance  of  the  people  who  make  this  section 
home. 

For  weeks  the  section  was  in  a  condition 
of  constant  warfare.  The  smallest  boys  were  or- 
ganized as  gangs  and  shouted  the  name  of  the 
leader  they  had  chosen  their  hero.  Boys  of  five 
wore  the  buttons  of  their  heroes.     From  fire-es- 


62       LEAVEN    IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

capes,  on  wagons  hung  bits  of  white  cloth  declar- 
ing the  names  of  the  contestants.  One  of  these, 
to  avoid  unpleasant  embarrassment,  had  gone  to 
California  after  the  Lexow  investigation.  A 
favorite  legend  displayed  by  his  enemy's  friends 
was,  "Paddy  is  the  man  who  to  Californy  ran." 
This  was  displayed  on  one  fire-escape  on  which 
opened  the  windows  of  two  families,  each  es- 
pousing the  cause  of  the  contending  leaders.  The 
week  before  the  balloting  for  leader  the  legend 
was  kept  in  place  by  the  constant  vigilance  for 
twenty-four  hours  of  the  day  by  the  family  whose 
sentiments  it  expressed.  "Paddy"  was  defeated. 
The  next  morning  the  two  neighbors,  who  had 
been  enemies  for  weeks,  leaned,  each  from  her 
own  window,  chatting  amicably,  while  the  son  of 
one  was  arranging  the  legend  on  the  fire-escape  to 
include  both  families.  On  either  side  was  grace- 
fully arranged  an  American  flag,  while  the  harp 
of  Erin  hung  just  in  the  middle  of  the  fire-escape. 
Peace  reigned  in  Warsaw.  "Paddy's"  friends, 
like  the  fairies  of  childhood,  disappeared  in  the 
night.  The  whole  district,  as  one  man,  accepted 
the  change  of  rulers,  and  the  new  leader's  ban- 
ners were  thrown  to  the  breeze  everywhere. 
Nothing  succeeds  like  success  in  the  tenement- 
house  regions.  For  a  couple  of  weeks  peace 
seemed  to  reign  in  the  district.     The  followers  of 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  63 

the  old  leader  found  themselves  displaced;  new 
followers  controlled  the  favors  in  the  district. 
There  began  a  new  distribution  of  patronage. 
Then  the  old  leader's  displaced  friends,  with  a  few 
loyal  souls,  rallied  about  him.  He  had  made 
money  enough  through  his  political  affiliations  to 
be  defiant,  and  announced  that  the  political  cor- 
ruption of  the  party  to  which  he  had  belonged 
compelled  him  to  rally  to  the  support  of  the  move- 
ment to  overthrow  it.  Some  of  his  followers 
were  loyal  to  bravery,  and  declared,  too,  against 
the  political  system.  Two  of  them,  because  of 
these  declarations,  were  discharged  forty-eight 
hours  later  from  places  in  a  city  department  where 
they  drew  salaries  of  $1200  per  year.  Their 
places  were  given  to  two  of  the  new  leader's  fol- 
lowers. Two  weeks  later  all  had  returned  to  the 
old  allegiance,  and  the  papers  announced  that  the 
head  of  the  Tammany  system  had  decided  that  the 
patronage  of  the  district  would  be  evenly  divided 
between  the  two  factions. 

Independence  of  action  is  costly  under  such  a 
system;  costly  in  loss  of  wages  to  the  voter;  of 
food,  raiment,  shelter  to  his  family. 

A  voter  who  refuses  to  surrender  the  ease  of  his 
home  or  the  pleasure  of  his  club  for  the  good  of 
the  district  in  which  his  home  is  located  is  not  in 
a  position  to  criticise  his  poor  neighbor  who  will 


64      LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

not  jeopardize  the  position  secured  by  his  vote 
that  supports  his  family  to  maintain  the  theory  of 
American  citizenship.  Why  should  he  make  sac- 
rifices to  free  the  city  from  disgrace  when  his  in- 
dependent neighbor  refuses  to  sacrifice  his  ease  to 
protect  his  family  from  the  inevitable  evils  of  a 
corrupt  city  government  ? 

It  was  the  conferring  the  rights  of  citizenship 
on  immigrants  almost  as  soon  as  they  landed  that 
fastened  on  New  York  an  evil  that  has  grown  un- 
til the  city  has  been  held  in  the  shackles  of  a  spoils 
system  that  overshadows  its  commercial  suprem- 
acy and  makes  it  the  argument  against  democratic 
government.  The  heaviest  disgrace  for  this  con- 
dition rests  not  on  the  men  who  profit  by  the  sys- 
tem but  on  the  good  men  who  permit  it  to  develop. 
It  was  the  logical  result  of  their  indifference  to 
the  city's  good  and  their  responsibility  for  that 
good.  This  inactivity  on  the  part  of  the  mass  of 
responsible  citizens  made  the  control  of  the  city 
offices  for  personal  ends  easy  to  the  men  who,  be- 
cause of  lack  of  training  and  moral  turpitude, 
could  not  conceive  of  a  service  for  other  than  per- 
sonal ends.  Shrewdness  made  them  see  that  the  im- 
migrant was  the  ladder  on  which  they  could  climb 
to  political  power  and  stability.  They  met  the 
immigrant  as  friend  and  neighbor;  they  secured 
him  work ;  they  schooled  him  to  citizenship,  and 


EARLY    MORNING   AMONG   THE    PUSHCARTS. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  6s 

began  at  once  to  train  him  in  that  deadliest  of  all 
influences  in  a  democracy,  class  in  politics.  So 
long  as  this  system  of  education  prevails,  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  candidate  for  local  office  who  does 
not  bear  the  "hall-mark"  of  the  neighborhood  will 
be  resented. 

As  time  went  on  and  the  immigrants  came  from 
many  countries,  a  new  evil  sprang  up — the  race 
section;  the  section  where,  maintaining  all  the 
characteristics  of  the  country  from  which  the 
people  came,  the  men  exercise  the  rights  of 
citizenship  at  the  behest  of  a  political  train- 
er who  is  able  to  promise  favors  for  obedience, 
and  work  vengeance  for  disobedience.  Behind 
him  is  a  power  which  he  must  obey  until  the  day 
comes  when  by  his  own  shrewdness  he  is  able  to 
cross  swords  with  those  above  him  in  the  political 
system,  becoming  himself  a  dictator.  In  the 
process  of  his  evolution  from  ward  heeler  to  dis- 
trict leader  he  has  trained  those  who  follow  him 
so  well  that  he  duplicates  himself  scores  of  times, 
increasing  his  power  every  time  he  makes  a  fol- 
lower, either  by  fear  or  favor,  perpetuating  the 
system  that  makes  the  city,  as  has  been  aptly  said, 
a  "gold  mine"  which  it  costs  the  operators  nothing 
to  work. 

The  man  at  the  bottom  knows  the  dupli- 
cate of  the  leader  nearest  his  own  level ;  this  man 


66       LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

is  his  friend,  his  countryman  often.  The  links 
in  the  chain  are  unbroken,  and  the  man  who  dares 
to  disobey  the  orders  issued  from  the  top  feels 
not  only  the  displeasure  of  the  henchman,  but  the 
combined  strength  of  the  chain,  or  as  much  of  it 
as  is  necessary  to  compel  him  to  obey  or  to  crush 
him.  The  poor  man  whose  tool  to  earn  a  living 
is  a  shovel,  a  pick  or  a  broom  is  not  in  a  position 
to  defend  his  rights;  he  has  no  public  sentiment 
in  the  only  world  he  knows  to  support  him  in  any 
attempt  he  may  make  to  attain  his  rights  when  de- 
frauded by  the  political  system  he,  in  utter  igno- 
rance, has  helped  to  establish.  When  he  is  thrown 
out  of  work  given  to  secure  his  vote,  he  has  no  re- 
dress. The  man  at  the  bottom  must  make  the  rule 
of  his  life  "Small  favors  thankfully  received." 
His  hope  for  work  in  the  future  depends  on  keep- 
ing in  friendly  touch  with  the  system ;  this  is  the 
first  principle  of  American  citizenship  grasped  by 
the  naturalized  citizen. 

Just  before  our  last  national  election  a  number 
of  men  employed  in  skilled  labor  in  one  of  our  city 
departments  were  laid  off.  To  some  of  those  men 
this  loss  of  work  meant  suffering  for  their  fami- 
lies; to  others  it  meant  debt  and  dependence.  It 
was  startling  the  spirit  in  which  this  loss  of  work 
and  wages  were  accepted  by  these  men.  The  dis- 
trict leader,  elected  by  the  people  to  make  the  laws 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  67 

at  Albany,  in  order  "to  hold  his  district  in  line" 
for  this  election,  had  to  provide  forty-eight  voters 
with  places.  He  demanded  from  the  department 
forty-eight  places;  the  work  was  in  his  district. 
No  one  questioned  his  right  to  make  this  demand ; 
these  places  represented  his  political  capital.  In  no 
way  could  his  demands  be  met  except  by  the  dis- 
charge of  forty-eight  men  then  at  work  who  lived 
outside  the  district.  It  was  done.  The  men  laid 
off,  almost  to  a  man,  accepted  it  as  the  fortune  of 
the  political  protege.  Scarcely  a  word  of  resent- 
ment was  expressed.  There  were  removals  into 
this  special  district  before  the  next  municipal  elec- 
tion, and  new  enrollments  under  the  leader's  ban- 
ner, irrespective  of  the  political  bias  of  the  voters. 
Some  of  the  men  were  sullen  and  felt  the  loss  of 
manhood;  some  said,  "I'll  vote  as  I  like,  but  I 
must  have  work ;"  others  believed  that  only  under 
this  leader's  banner  could  a  poor  man  hope  to  get 
his  rights — the  privilege  to  earn  his  living ;  or,  in 
their  language,  "He  is  hustling  for  his  friends." 
Not  only  does  the  skilled  and  unskilled  manual 
laborer  find  that  the  approval  of  his  district  lead- 
ers is  necessary  to  secure  work  under  the  city, 
but  that  the  affiliations  and  power  of  the  district 
leader  and  his  political  followers  can  secure  him 
work  under  corporations  holding  public  fran- 
chises.     He  knows  that  the  district  leader  se- 


68      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

cures  privileges,  licenses,  votes  for  franchises,  di- 
rectly or  indirectly,  with  the  distinct  understand- 
ing that  his  recommendations  insure  places  to  the 
men  who  carry  them.  Under  corrupt  city  gov- 
ernment the  man  in  business  who  does  not  cater 
to  the  political  powers  finds  his  privileges  cur- 
tailed ;  that  he  is  made  the  target  for  petty  annoy- 
ances. Especially  is  this  true  in  the  downtown 
districts,  where  in  the  transaction  of  business  the 
rights  of  citizens  to  the  streets  are  ignored.  Until 
one  has  lived  close  to  it,  it  is  almost  impossible 
to  believe  the  power  over  the  working  masses  the 
smallest  cog  in  the  political  machine  exercises.  It 
is  this  that  makes  imperative  the  control  of  the 
city  by  men  of  high  moral  standing.  No  amount 
of  unselfish  philanthropy  can  save  a  city  governed 
by  the  corrupt. 

There  are  sections  in  the  city  of  New  York 
where  from  the  time  the  boy  is  old  enough  to  rec- 
ognize the  power  of  a  policeman  he  guides  his  life 
to  curry  favor  with  this  visible  expression  of 
power.  He  knows  almost  as  soon  as  he  can  talk 
the  man  who  rules  in  the  world  in  which  he  lives. 
He  sees  his  playmate  defy  the  policeman  because 
his  father  is  a  man  of  power,  or  the  friend  of  the 
man  who  rules  the  district.  "Pull"  is  the  law, 
all  the  law  he  recognizes.  He  hears  discussed 
from  his  earliest  years  the  dependence  of  his  class 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  69 

on  the  political  powers  who  govern,  not  for  the 
good  of  the  city,  but  that  they  may  have  their 
rights;  their  rights,  as  interpreted,  being  the  se- 
curing of  a  place  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period  at 
the  nod  of  a  "boss."  Their  district  is  all  the 
city  thousands  of  the  inhabitants  of  these  sections 
know.  How  can  it  be  otherwise?  They  are  never 
called  for  any  purpose  to  any  other  part  of  the 
city,  unless  it  be  the  cemetery.  Family,  friends, 
business  all  center  within  a  score  of  blocks.  If  a 
distance  must  be  traversed,  it  is  through  thor- 
oughfares that  but  duplicate  regions  they  know, 
all  a  part  of  the  kingdom  of  the  "boss." 

When  the  observer  sees  five  thousand  men 
walking  behind  a  banner  conferred  on  the  leader 
of  the  district  because  every  man  in  it  who  votes 
votes  at  his  dictation,  there  comes  to  him  a  faint 
apprehension  of  what  political  power  in  the  tene- 
ment-house district  is.  This  district  leader  inter- 
prets all  these  men  know  of  this  country  or  its 
institutions.  They  know  that  he  secures  work 
for  them ;  that  he  befriends  them  in  time  of  trou- 
ble. He  interprets  Christ's  doctrine  to  them :  "I 
was  hungry  and  ye  gave  me  meat ;  thirsty  and  ye 
gave  me  drink.  I  was  a  stranger  and  ye  took  me 
in;  naked  and  ye  clothed  me;  I  was  sick  and  ye 
visited  me;  I  was  in  prison  and  ye  came  unto  me." 
This  is  what  the  district  leader  does,  if  not  in 


70      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

person,  by  proxy.  Is  it  any  wonder  he  can  con- 
trol votes  ?  Is  it  any  wonder  that  the  poor,  igno- 
rant, unequipped  voter  should  curry  favor,  bow  to 
him,  acknowledge  his  supremacy  even  to  the  law  ? 
For  this  the  voter  can  break  the  law,  and  the  leader 
secure  remission  of  the  penalty.  The  leader's  nod 
has  been  known  to  guide  the  judge  on  the  bench. 
The  leader  can  make  the  innocent  suffer  because 
his  power  is  greater  than  the  law  to  which  the  in- 
nocent appeal.  This  is  the  moral  doctrine  with 
which  we  inoculate  our  newly  made  citizens,  and 
under  which  the  children  of  our  overcrowded  ten- 
ement houses  grow  up.  As  the  boys  approach 
manhood  they  know  no  greater  privilege  than  to 
serve  the  man  who  has  the  power  to  give  them 
place,  and  he  begins  to  cultivate  their  acquaintance 
early. 

It  takes  brains,  moral  standards,  a  knowledge 
of  life  and  experience  to  put  the  district  leaders 
and  their  cohorts  in  the  place  they  belong.  Talk- 
ing against  them  accomplishes  nothing  while  the 
majority  he  represents  keeps  him  in  power,  yes, 
makes  him  possible.  He  makes  morality  an  evil, 
dishonesty  justice  to  the  people  who  know  him  as 
the  representative  of  republican  principles.  They 
are  the  people.  They  have  left  one  land  because 
it  deprived  them  of  rights.     Rights  as  they  know 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  71 

them  are  personal,  and  the  district  leader  secures 
them. 

The  opposition  to  the  reform  movement  by  the 
people  governed  by  the  district  leader  comes  from 
the  conviction,  dimly  conceived  or  implanted,  that 
the  election  of  the  men  who  represent  it  would 
mean  that  everywhere  merit  and  not  "pull"  would 
keep  the  voter  at  work ;  that  business  would  have 
to  be  conducted  according  to  law;  that  crime 
would  be  punished;  that  no  man  would  hold  the 
keys  of  the  prison  for  their  benefit,  but  for  the 
protection  of  the  community. 

One  of  the  greatest  moral  lessons  administered 
to  the  people  of  New  York  in  a  language  that  all 
understood,  and  one  which  all  classes  in  the  com- 
munity needed,  was  given  by  the  late  Colonel 
George  E.  Waring.  When  he  organized  the  De- 
partment of  Street  Cleaning  on  the  merit  system ; 
when  he  proved  to  every  man  in  the  department 
that  if  he  did  his  work  no  man  could  displace  him ; 
that  he  could  defend  himself,  a  man  before  men, 
if  charges  were  brought  against  him,  Colonel 
Waring  changed  the  moral  character  of  New 
York.  Every  man  in  that  department  had  his 
friends  to  whom  he  carried  the  message;  stood 
a  free  man  employed  by  the  city ;  a  man  who  dared 
to  vote  as  he  would  though  in  public  service; 


72       LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

would  not  be  deprived  of  the  right  to  earn 
his  daily  bread  because  of  the  use  he  made  of 
his  rights  as  an  American  citizen.  This  moral  les- 
son went  into  every  home.  The  woman  whose 
husband  handled  a  broom,  drove  a  cart,  held  her 
head  up,  for  the  magic  D.  S.  C.  had  changed  a 
"job"  that  enslaved  her  husband  to  an  employ- 
ment that  honored  him. 

The  enforcement  of  the  law  in  the  gathering 
of  the  garbage ;  the  cleanliness  of  the  streets  in  the 
tenement-house  districts  equal  to  those  of  the  ave- 
nues, for  the  first  time  in  generations  brought  the 
great  truth  to  the  consciousness  of  the  people  in 
the  tenement-house  regions  that  all  men  were 
equal.  That  the  clean  streets  led  to  clean  halls 
and  cleaner  homes  was  natural;  and  the  further 
evolution  meant  clean  characters,  because  of 
moral  freedom  to  express  opinion  in  a  ballot  cast 
at  no  man's  command. 

And  then  came  the  summers  when,  for  the  sake 
of  the  children,  extra  exertions  were  made  to  keep 
the  streets  clean.  Slowly  the  truth  dawned  on 
the  dullest  mother  that  the  babies  were  not  dying 
in  such  numbers;  were  not  so  ill,  because  the 
streets  were  clean,  the  garbage  collected  and  the 
streets  washed  and  cool.  Twenty  years  of 
Colonel  Waring,  and  the  moral  tone  of  the  most 
ignorant  would  be  changed.    For  the  right  to  earn 


THE  DEVELOPMENT 


73 


his  living  honestly,  honorably,  to  cast  his  ballot 
as  an  American  citizen,  would  be  guaranteed  to 
every  voter  employed  in  a  city  department  em- 
ploying the  greatest  number  of  voters  with  the 
least  manual  ability,  the  least  education. 

A  city  is  just  as  honest  as  the  greatest  number 
of  citizens  casting  a  ballot  with  the  least  knowl- 
edge of  its  value  and  effect;  it  comes  no  higher 
in  the  scale  of  integrity  than  that.  Every  man 
who  stands  behind  a  broom  because  he  earns  what 
is  paid  him,  and  knows  that  he  stays  there  just 
as  long  as  he  continues  to  earn  his  wages,  repre- 
sents a  wealth  of  manhood  in  a  democracy,  a  part 
of  the  nation's  capital  as  a  world  power. 

When  Colonel  Waring  discharged  the  first  man 
convicted  of  accepting  a  bribe  for  collecting  the 
refuse  of  the  city  contrary  to  the  law  of  the  de- 
partment, he  gave  a  practical  demonstration  of  the 
truth  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  that  all 
men  are  born  free  and  equal.  He  showed  by  that 
act  that  the  poor  man  who  could  not  pay  a  bribe 
was  protected  by  the  law ;  that  wealth  purchased 
no  privileges  at  the  expense  of  the  city.  Just 
where  the  spoils  system  had  worked  its  deepest 
degradation  it  received  its  most  effective  lesson. 
The  greatest  benefit  that  Colonel  Waring,  that 
man  of  law  and  order,  conferred  upon  New  York, 
was  not  its  clean  streets,  but  the  moral  lesson  that 


74      LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

a  city  department  can  be  administered  to  secure 
the  best  interests  of  the  people  on  the  principles 
that  control  the  best  business  houses  of  the  city. 
To  the  shame  of  the  city  be  it  said  that  it 
had  so  long  been  accustomed  to  the  spoils  system 
that  it  could  not  accept  the  theory  of  Colonel  War- 
ing. It  was  impossible  for  even  the  philanthropic 
workers  to  believe  that  a  man  would  not  be  placed, 
if  they  used  their  personal  "pull"  with  the  head 
of  the  department.  The  politicians  learned  quick- 
ly that  the  system  in  that  department  ignored 
"pull."  When  they  did  accept  it,  they  determined 
to  overthrow  the  man  who  robbed  the  spoils  sys- 
tem of  its  largest  perquisite  where  it  was  most 
effective  in  numbers.  The  combination  of  the 
political  machines  accomplished  the  city's  dis- 
grace in  1897.  It  was  redeemed  in  1901  by  a 
people  who  had  suffered  cruelly;  who  saw  in  the 
four  years  of  misrule  that  they  had  made  their 
own  chains  of  bondage. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  HOMES  UNDER  ONE  ROOF. 

The  importance  of  environment  is  at  last  ad- 
mitted as  a  factor  in  character-building.  That 
light  and  air  are  indispensable  to  cleanliness,  and 
physical  cleanliness  to  health,  and  health  to  mor- 
als, is  the  gospel  that  the  evils  of  the  tenements 
have  forced  the  philanthropists  to  declare  until  the 
thinking  public  is  convinced  of  its  truth. 

There  are  tenement  houses  that  have  reputa- 
tions as  positive  as  individuals.  Thoughtful,  in- 
telligent wives  of  workingmen  would  not,  could 
not  be  persuaded  to  move  into  them  because  of 
their  reputations.  Often  the  evils  of  these  tene- 
ments are  justly  attributed  to  the  housekeepers. 
Housekeepers  of  tenements  are  women  who  pay 
the  whole  or  a  part  of  their  rent  by  overseeing  the 
house;  attending  to  the  cleaning,  collecting  the 
rents,  letting  the  rooms,  adjusting  differences  be- 
tween tenants — "a  go-between"  between  the  agent 
or  the  owner  and  the  tenants.  The  owner  or 
agent  employing  these  women  upholds  their  de- 
cisions when  differences  between  the  tenants  and 
housekeepers  arise.    This  clothes  them  with  great 


j6      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

authority,  and  often  enables  them  to  do  great  in- 
justice. They  are  feared  usually.  Families  will 
endure  restrictions  of  liberties,  every  deprivation 
of  their  rights,  because  protest  would  mean  evic- 
tion or  discomforts  that  would  compel  them  to 
move. 

Under  some  agents  and  owners  these  house- 
keepers have  absolute  control  of  the  property. 
They  frequently  make  and  enforce  rules  that  ut- 
terly ignore  the  rights  of  tenants.  This  rule  is 
often  as  absolute  as  though  they  were  the  owners 
of  the  house.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  this  class 
of  housekeepers  usually  make  the  property  under 
their  control  pay;  they  usually  keep  up  the  char- 
acter of  the  houses  under  their  control  because 
they  have  standards  and  compel  those  about  them 
to  live  up  to  them. 

On  an  East  Side  street  a  few  blocks  from 
the  East  River  are  four  27-foot  front  houses 
of  the  English-basement  type.  The  plan  of 
these  houses  indicates  that  they  were  designed 
as  residences  for  people  of  ample  means. 
The  halls  are  broad,  the  stairways  wide,  as- 
cending in  recesses  on  the  first  floor  that  leaves 
the  entrance  halls  clear  from  front  to  rear 
doorways.  The  yards  of  these  four  houses, 
wide  and  deep,  are  paved  with  broad  flag- 
ging stones,  such  as  are  used  on  the  sidewalks. 


A   REMNANT  OF  THE    PAST. 


HOMES  UNDER  ONE  ROOF     77 

The  fences  are  kept  in  good  order  and  well  paint- 
ed. Not  a  child  living  in  these  four  houses  dares 
to  play  in  those  yards.  The  housekeeper — one  wo- 
man has  charge  of  the  four  houses — would 
order  them  out.  If  the  children  did  not  leave  at 
once,  complaint  would  be  made  to  the  mothers ; 
and  if  they  did  not  uphold  the  housekeeper  and 
insist  that  the  children  play  in  the  street,  the  moth- 
ers who  failed  would  have  to  move.  Every 
mother-tenant  knows  this  well.  A  mother  of 
three  children  who  had  lived  in  these  houses  all 
her  married  life,  when  asked  why  the  children 
could  not  play  in  the  yard,  where  she  could  watch 
them,  replied:  "Why,  if  the  children  played  in 
the  yard  they  would  make  a  lot  of  work  for  the 
housekeeper.  She  would  not  stand  it."  This 
mother's  tone  indicated  that  she  thought  the 
housekeeper  was  right.  The  youngest  of  the 
three  children  in  another  family  living  in  these 
houses  was  ill  all  winter.  When  convalescent,  the 
doctor  ordered  him  to  be  kept  out  of  doors  as 
much  as  possible.  The  mother  had  all  the  work 
to  do  for  five  in  family,  and  had  to  devise  some 
means  of  keeping  the  child  out  that  would  not  in- 
terfere with  her  work.  She  arranged  the  fire- 
escape  outside  of  the  window,  putting  pillows  and 
toys  out  there.  The  little  fellow  climbed  over  the 
rail  and  struck  a  stone  beneath,  breaking  his  arms. 


78       LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

"Why  did  you  not  put  him  in  the  yard,  where 
you  could  watch  him,  and  where  he  could  run 
about?" 

"Oh!  the  housekeeper  would  be  so  angry;  I 
wouldn't  dare." 

"Must  you  keep  the  children  out  of  the  yard?" 

"Yes;  they  would  make  an  awful  lot  of  work 
for  the  housekeeper." 

Investigation  proved  that  the  owner  of  this 
property  supported  the  housekeeper  in  depriving 
even  the  babies  of  the  use  of  these  yards.  A 
mother  could  not  roll  a  baby  carriage  around  the 
yards,  because  her  older  children,  if  she  had  any, 
would  be  sure  to  go  into  the  yards  to  see  her.  The 
rents  for  four  rooms,  two  absolutely  dark,  venti- 
lated through  the  dark  and  unventilated  halls  by 
a  window  eighteen  inches  square,  were  $22,  $20 
and  $18  per  month,  respectively,  for  each  floor. 
The  streets  in  front  are  overcrowded,  dirty ;  when 
the  trucks  were  in  the  streets,  two  were  always 
standing  in  front  of  these  houses.  Push-carts 
now  replace  the  trucks. 

The  people  stay  in  these  houses  year  after  year. 
A  bill  never  appears  on  them.  The  arbitrary 
restriction  as  to  the  use  of  the  yard  is 
not  counted  against  the  property,  because  it 
is  so  clean,  kept  in  such  good  repair,  and  the  char- 
acter of  the  people  scrutinized  before  they  are  ac- 


HOMES  UNDER  ONE  ROOF     79 

cepted  as  tenants.  It  is  generally  understood  that 
the  renting  of  furnished  rooms  is  not  approved. 
The  housekeeper  finds  a  tenant  who  rents  rooms 
objectionable.  In  a  neighborhood  where  every 
house  shows  year  after  year  a  loss  of  character, 
people  poorer  and  more  ignorant  becoming  ten- 
ants, these  four  houses  retain  the  appearance  of 
comfort  and  respectability.  Among  the  tenants 
there  is  but  little  intimacy;  they  appear  to  have 
little  in  common.  The  women  are  never  heard 
in  the  halls,  nor  do  they  loiter  about  the  doorways. 
The  men  are  all  skilled  workmen,  earning  good 
wages — clerks  on  small  salaries,  or  in  city  depart- 
ments, all  natives  of  New  York.  The  wives  were 
all  wage-earners  before  they  were  married.  They 
dress  well ;  most  of  them  are  fairly  good  house- 
keepers. All  buy  their  children's  clothes  ready 
made;  two  make  their  own  dresses.  For  their 
children  they  are  ambitious,  and  expect  to  keep 
them  in  school  until  they  are  sixteen.  This  the 
children  defeat.  The  boys  get  places  during  the 
summer  vacations  in  their  fourteenth  year,  refus- 
ing to  go  back  to  school.  The  girls  are  contented 
until  fourteen,  and  then  they  grow  restless,  becom- 
ing wage-earners;  all  that  they  earn  is  spent  for 
their  clothes.  The  wages  of  the  father  may  no 
more  than  meet  the  expenses  of  the  family,  but 
this  is  not  considered.     Clothes  are  the  essentials. 


80      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

A  man  having  a  salary  of  $1,400,  living  in  one  of 
these  houses,  had  to  go  in  debt  the  first  week  of  a 
serious  illness  of  his  wife.  He  did  not  have  a 
dollar  in  advance  to  meet  emergencies.  He  was 
a  proud,  indulgent,  tender  husband  and  father. 

This  type  of  house  and  this  class  of  tenants  are 
disappearing  from  the  East  Side.  The  remnant  of 
this  class  who  remain  are  held  by  political  affilia- 
tions or  family  ties.  The  men  enjoy  the  sense  of 
power  that  comes  from  this  connection,  and  real- 
ize fully  that  to  leave  the  district  would  mean  a 
loss  of  social  prestige,  or,  if  minor  politicians,  a 
loosening  of  their  hold  on  the  people  to  whom 
they  represent  political  power.  Many  of  this 
class  remain  in  the  section  because  they  hold  po- 
sitions in  the  city  departments  in  return  for  active 
service  in  the  interest  of  the  political  machines. 

Not  far  away  from  these  tenements  is  another 
in  which  are  sixteen  families.  The  rents  in  this 
house  range  from  $5  to  $9.50  per  month  for 
two  to  three  rooms.  The  house  is  dirty, 
neglected ;  violations  of  the  sanitary  laws  are 
evident  from  the  front  door  to  the  roof,  on 
which  tenants  occupying  the  front  rooms  must 
dry  their  clothes.  The  water  is  in  the  dark  halls ; 
in  winter,  for  days  at  a  time,  the  pipes,  both  water 
and  drain,  are  frozen  and  burst;  yet  the  tenants 
stay  year  after  year.     One  woman,  the  mother  of 


HOMES  UNDER  ONE  ROOF     81 

four  children,  was  born,  married,  her  four  chil- 
dren were  born,  and  her  husband,  mother  and 
father  died  in  this  house.  She  has  never  moved, 
except  across  the  hall,  up  and  downstairs,  as  she 
has  been  able  to  pay  more  or  has  been  forced  to 
reduce  her  rent.  The  women  in  this  house  know 
almost  nothing  of  housekeeping.  The  men  are 
employed  only  about  half  the  time.  The  num- 
ber of  children  in  the  house  averages  three  to  each 
family.  It  is  a  New  England  hamlet  under  one 
roof  in  this  particular.  If  there  is  sickness  in  any 
family,  it  is  the  concern  of  every  tenant;  if  a  man 
is  out  of  work,  it  is  a  community  misfortune,  and 
to  be  shared.  A  new  hat  for  man  or  woman  is 
the  cause  of  rejoicing,  for  it  is  the  badge  of  re- 
spectability for  any  in  the  house  who  may  need 
it  in  an  emergency.  The  whole  household,  for 
such  it  seems  to  be,  are  poor,  very  poor ;  thriftless, 
unambitious;  the  men  somewhat  given  to  drink 
to  excess;  yet  the  spirit  of  neighborliness  shames 
criticism.  A  woman  in  this  house  ill  four  months 
was  nursed  by  her  neighbors  night  and  day.  Her 
house  and  children  were  cared  for,  food  pro- 
vided when  necessary.  Comment  on  their  loyalty 
and  devotion  was  met  with  the  response:  "God 
knows  how  soon  she  may  be  doing  it  for  one  of 
us."  Yet  when  that  woman,  whom  most  of  them 
had  known  all  her  life,  gave  evidence  of  preg- 


82       LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

nancy  a  few  months  after  her  husband's  death, 
not  a  woman  crossed  her  doorsill  until  the  birth 
of  twin  babies  within  the  period  of  time  redeemed 
her  character.  Whether  from  remorse  or  love, 
ample  return  for  this  cruelty  has  been  made  many 
times. 

In  the  two-room  apartments  in  this  house  there 
is  one  closet,  with  shelves  about  six  inches  wide. 
This  is  in  the  one  room  that  serves  as  living-room, 
kitchen,  dining-room — a  room  less  than  eight  feet 
wide.  The  bedroom  is  perfectly  dark,  ventilated 
by  a  square  window  into  perfectly  dark,  unventi- 
lated  halls.  A  full-sized  bed  leaves  the  width  of 
the  door  between  it  and  the  wall.  The  three-room 
apartments  have  outside  windows — five  to  the 
three  rooms.  There  is  a  closet  in  the  kitchen  and 
one  in  the  large  room.  People  talk  of  poverty,  but 
few  people  know  what  it  is.  A  woman  who  had 
moved  into  the  three-room  apartment  had  hung 
all  the  clothing  for  five  in  family  in  the  one  bed- 
room on  four  nails.  In  reply  to  a  protest,  she 
said  patiently  and  quietly :  "There  are  no  hooks 
in  the  closet  in  the  front  room,  and  I  hadn't  a 
penny  to  buy  any."  Ten  cents  provided  that 
closet  with  hooks.  A  comment  was  made  on  the 
keeping  of  the  washtub  under  the  kitchen  table. 
"Why  do  you  not  have  the  tub  carried  to  the  cel- 
lar?"    An  expression  of  self-pity  passed  over  the 


HOMES  UNDER  ONE  ROOF     83 

woman's  face  as  she  explained  that  the  tub  would 
have  to  be  carried  down  three  flights  of  stairs,  out 
on  the  street,  around  the  corner,  down  the  cellar 
stairs,  and  then  to  her  coal  cellar  at  the  extreme 
end  of  the  cellar. 

The  house  stands  on  a  corner,  the  entrance 
from  the  street  at  the  extreme  end  of  the  west 
wall.  The  cellar  door  was  formerly  close  to  the 
entrance  door,  but  the  landlord  built  in  the  back 
end  of  the  cellar  an  oven  when  a  baker  hired  the 
store  on  the  first  floor.  A  cellar  door  was  then 
opened  at  the  farthest  part  of  the  front,  or  south 
wall,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  from  the 
entrance  door  of  the  house.  Is  it  surprising  that 
coal  is  bought  by  the  pail  by  all  the  tenants  ?  That 
tubs  are  kept  anywhere  in  their  rooms  where 
there  is  space? 

Shiftlessness,  thriftless  uncleanliness  marks 
even  the  sidewalk  about  this  house.  The  dirt 
inside  or  out  troubles  nobody.  Children  will  spill 
half  the  contents  of  the  garbage  pail  they  are  car- 
rying to  the  cans  in  the  tiny  yard,  in  halls  and  on 
the  stairway.  It  is  kicked  out  of  the  way  with- 
out comment.  Dogs  or  cats,  and  ofttimes  both, 
are  members  of  the  families  who  live  under  this 
roof.  The  unsanitary  conditions  of  the  closets 
in  the  yard  arouse  pity  for  the  tenants  on  the  first 
floor;  but  no  tenant  thinks   of  complaining  to 


84     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

either  the  housekeeper  or  the  authorities.  It 
would  be  useless,  and  would  get  them  into  trou- 
ble. The  present  owner  is  willing  to  kalsomine 
the  bedrooms  and  halls  each  spring,  but  the  ten- 
ants object  because  it  makes  a  lot  of  work. 

In  August,  two  years  ago,  the  writer  was  going 
up  the  first  flight  of  stairs  in  this  house,  when  a 
baby  voice  was  heard  pleading:  'Tease  turn 
fas'er;  oh,  pease  turn  fas'er;  I  'ant  to  do  p'ay;  I 
'ant  to  doe  on  steet;  pease  turn  fas'er."  On  the 
third  floor  a  tiny  boy  stood  in  front  of  the  sink 
talking  to  the  faucet,  from  which  a  tiny  stream 
was  flowing  into  a  little  tin  pail.  An  infant's 
voice  from  one  of  the  rooms  told  the  story.  The 
mother  needed  water  and  could  not  leave  the  baby. 
Perhaps  this  was  the  tiny  nurse  of  mother  and 
baby,  big  enough  to  call  a  neighbor  to  do  what 
he  could  not  do. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  this  stream  of 
water  from  the  faucet  represented  the  water  sup- 
ply for  four  families,  the  difficulties  of  clean- 
liness under  those  conditions  may  be  slightly 
appreciated.  In  spite  of  the  dirt,  the  darkness, 
the  unsanitary  conditions  of  this  house,  the 
thriftlessness  and  ignorance  of  the  tenants, 
there  is  a  spirit  of  neighborliness  in  it  that  puts 
the  critical  to  blush.  Without  a  doubt  the  house- 
keeper, who  is  a  shrewd  woman,  fosters  this  spirit 


HOMES  UNDER  ONE  ROOF     85 

of  neighborliness.  She  smiles  as  she  says  :  "They 
gets  so  used  to  each  other  they  hates  to  be  sepa- 
rated." Neither  house  nor  tenants  seem  to  go  be- 
low the  level  established  twelve  years  ago. 

There  is  a  housekeeper  who  does  mission  work 
of  which  the  world  takes  no  note.  She  is  the 
woman  who  in  the  true  sense  is  an  altruist.  By 
her  force  of  character,  her  hatred  of  inefficiency, 
her  love  of  order,  she  compels  the  women  who  be- 
come tenants  who  do  not  know  how  to  keep  house 
to  learn  how. 

The  writer  knows  intimately  such  a  house- 
keeper. She  had  charge  of  a  four-story  tene- 
ment on  the  lower  East  Side.  The  house  was  of 
the  type  known  as  "double  decker."  There  were 
four  apartments  on  each  floor;  the  front  consist- 
ing of  a  kitchen,  living-room  and  two  bedrooms ; 
the  back,  of  one  room  and  two  bedrooms.  Small 
windows  near  the  ceiling  in  kitchen  and  bed- 
rooms opened  on  a  narrow  space  between  this  and 
the  next  house,  which  was  an  old-fashioned  resi- 
dence. A  similar  opening  in  that  house  enabled 
the  neighbors  to  look  into  each  other's  rooms. 
Water  and  refuse  were  thrown  into  this  space  be- 
tween the  two  houses,  and  sometimes  into  the 
rooms  of  neighbors  unintentionally.  There  was 
war,  bitter  war,  because  of  this;  for  the  large 
tenement  was  occupied  by  a  part  of  the  remnant 


86       LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

having  social  standards  left  on  the  lower  East 
Side. 

There  was  water  in  all  the  kitchens  of  the  large 
tenement.  The  halls  were  absolutely  dark,  but 
were  free  from  the  nuisances  of  hallways  having 
sinks.  Stairs  and  halls  were  covered  with  light 
oilcloth,  the  stairs  having  brass  treads  on  the  edge. 
Everything  was  kept  as  clean  as  soap,  water  and 
muscular  strength  could  keep  it. 

The  first  visit  was  made  to  this  house  long 
before  Colonel  Waring  had  shown  what  clean 
streets  would  do  in  the  tenement-house  districts. 
On  the  street  curb  in  front  of  the  door  stood  three 
ash  barrels  filled  within  three  inches  of  the  top, 
carefully  covered  with  newspapers  tucked  in 
around  the  edge  of  the  contents.  This  indicates 
the  standards  of  this  housekeeper.  She  hated 
dirt  and  disorder.  She  could  not  be  happy  where 
it  was.  She  forced  by  tact,  coercion,  persuasion, 
any  and  every  means,  her  way  to  the  heart  and 
home  of  every  ignorant  housekeeper  who  came 
under  that  roof.  She  taught  cooking  by  sending 
cake,  bread,  soup  she  had  made  to  the  tenants,  and 
arousing  the  desire  in  them  to  learn  how  to  make 
that  particular  dish.  She  instituted  an  exchange 
of  skill  among  the  tenants.  The  woman  who 
could  make  a  dress  and  not  a  hat  exchanged  skill 
with  the  one  who  had  been  a  milliner.      The  wo- 


HOMES  UNDER  ONE  ROOF     87 

man  who  made  bread  and  failed  with  cake  ex- 
changed skill  with  the  cakemaker.  They  even 
took  turns  in  going  to  the  theatre,  the  neighbor 
staying  home  and  taking  care  of  the  children. 

The  property  was  more  valuable  every  year ;  no 
bill  appeared  at  the  door.  It  stood  apart  from 
its  neighbors  for  years.  This  housekeeper  was 
compelled  to  give  up  her  responsibility  and  left 
the  house,  as  she  wisely  said :  "No  one  would 
manage  it  in  my  way.  I  could  not  get  on  in 
peace."  Six  months  after  every  tenant  had 
moved  but  the  liquor  dealer;  and  even  his  bar- 
room had  sunk  to  a  lower  level.  A  building  in 
which  many  homes  might  be  maintained  is  now 
merely  a  place  of  shelter.  People  move  in  and 
out ;  no  relations  are  established ;  there  is  nothing 
to  hold  the  tenant  here  above  any  other  house. 
The  owner  has  sold  the  property,  hating  its  pres- 
ent character. 

Again,  tenants  will  be  the  victims  of  vin- 
dictive housekeepers,  who  for  any  and  no  reason 
will  begin  a  system  of  petty  persecutions  to  com- 
pel a  tenant  to  move.  Then  there  is  the  gossiping 
housekeeper,  who  keeps  the  tenants  at  war.  It 
is  no  secret  that  the  method  of  rent  collecting  of 
some  housekeepers  holds  tenants  year  after  year. 
They  will  take  the  rent  in  the  smallest  sums,  daily 
or  weekly.      By  the  end  of  the  month  they  will 


88      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

usually  have  the  full  amount  collected.  The 
houses  where  this  system  prevails  are  the  most 
objectionable.  The  tenants  for  this  leniency  en- 
dure positive  evils.  The  important  thing  is  a 
place  of  shelter  for  the  family.  Work  is  uncer- 
tain, or  long  periods  of  idleness  has  made  the  pay- 
ment of  rent  impossible  for  a  period.  The  house- 
keeper understands  and  becomes  responsible  for 
keeping  the  tenant  until  the  rent  is  paid.  In  re- 
turn the  tenants  endure  neglect  of  duty  on  the 
part  of  the  housekeeper.  Silence  is  their  expres- 
sion of  gratitude.  No  repairs  are  made,  for  none 
are  demanded.  The  house  sinks  lower  and  lower ; 
anybody  can  move  in  on  the  payment  of  part  of  a 
month's  rent.  The  vacant  rooms  are  dirty — give 
visible  evidence  of  the  presence  of  vermin ;  but  the 
family  evicted  with  only  half  a  month's  rent  in 
hand  cannot  afford  to  be  critical.  This  is  the 
house  that  makes  the  slum. 

Two  housekeepers  of  tenements  were  discussing 
owners  and  tenants  before  the  writer.  One  was 
rigid,  keeping  the  house  astonishingly  clean,  with 
rooms  rarely  vacant;  the  other,  always  in  trou- 
ble with  the  tenants,  always  having  some  one  to 
evict,  threw  the  blame  for  her  troubles  on  the  ten- 
ants. The  first  one  listened,  finally  saying  slowly : 
"No,  you  are  the  one.  You  get  cross  and  abuse 
the    children.      You    make    pets    of    some   chil- 


A   TYPE    OF   THE    PRESENT 


HOMES  UNDER  ONE  ROOF     89 

dren  and  some  mothers,  and  the  others  see  it  and 
get  mad.  Then  there  is  a  fight.  To  keep  a  house 
you  must  treat  everybody  the  same.  You  must 
make  good  rules ;  you  must  do  your  part  and  make 
every  tenant  do  her  part.  I've  had  two  of  the 
tenants  you  put  out  of  your  house  five  years. 
They  are  good  tenants;  watch  yourself." 

There  are  landlords  who  care  for  nothing  but 
the  income  from  their  property.  Any  kind  of  ten- 
ant who  will  pay  rent  is  acceptable.  Any  house- 
keeper who  collects  the  specified  amount  may  hold 
control  without  question.  The  housekeeper  may 
have  standards,  but  these  are  swept  aside  by  the 
exactions  of  the  landlord.  The  rents  in  such 
houses  are  usually  high,  because  there  is  such  a 
percentage  of  loss  in  rents.  This  house  also  con- 
tributes to  the  creation  of  the  slum. 

The  careless  and  apparently  malicious  destruc- 
tion of  property  by  tenants  is  not  appreciated  by 
those  who  touch  this  question  of  tenement  houses 
superficially.  No  means  has  yet  been  found  to 
make  the  tenement-house  population  understand 
that  the  abuse  of  property  is  a  factor  in  their  rent 
problem.  Within  a  year  the  writer  was  walking 
with  a  group  of  women,  two  of  whom  were  house- 
keepers in  tenement  houses.  This  question  of 
tenants  was  being  discussed  freely  by  the  women 
who  were  tenants  as  well  as  the  housekeepers. 


go      LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

It  was  interesting  to  find  that  all  agreed  that  one 
family  could  change  the  character  of  a  tenement 
house  for  the  worst,  but  one  family  could  not  im- 
prove its  character.  The  reason  was  that  the 
family  above  the  tenement  came  only  to  reduce 
their  rent  during  a  hard  time,  while  the  family 
with  evil  tendencies  stayed  until  they  were  put 
out,  to  go  into  a  cheaper  tenement  and  lower 
that.  They  agreed  that  where  housekeeper 
and  tenant  got  on  well  together  both  hated  a 
change.  The  two  things  that  dragged  down  the 
character  of  a  tenement  was  beer-drinking  and  de- 
structive children — children  allowed  to  "run 
wild."  These  women  insisted  that  there  never 
would  be  quarrels  in  tenement  houses  were  it  not 
for  these  two  causes.  A  woman  who  drank  beer 
would  invite  her  new  neighbors  to  drink.  They 
would  treat  in  return,  and  the  house  would  show 
it  at  once.  The  women  who  drink  beer  in  this 
fashion  grow  careless  of  their  persons  and  their 
homes;  they  get  rid  of  their  children,  who  soon 
learn  to  enjoy  the  freedom  from  control.  The 
children  destroy  the  property  first  in  play,  through 
carelessness,  and  later  grow  malicious. 

If  a  housekeeper  is  sharp  and  shrewd,  these  wo- 
men tenants  claimed  that  she  could  at  any 
time  get  rid  of  an  objectionable  tenant;  but  the 
housekeepers  held  that  if  the  owner  did  not  care 


HOMES  UNDER  ONE  ROOF     91 

for  anything  but  rents,  the  housekeeper  was  often 
compelled  to  let  in  and  keep  in  objectionable  ten- 
ants. They  admitted,  one  and  all,  that  houses 
fairly  indicated  the  character  of  the  people  who 
would  live  in  them,  and  that  rents  regulated  the 
class  of  tenants  to  a  very  great  degree.  They  ad- 
mitted that  at  times  one  could  find  tenants  who 
had  lived  for  many  years  in  one  house  where  con- 
ditions had  changed  for  the  worst.  But  it  was 
unusual.  People  now  selected  houses  where  those 
of  their  own  faith,  and,  if  foreign,  those  of  their 
own  nationality,  at  least  predominated.  That  this 
tendency  was  seen  more  and  more  every  year. 
This  group  of  women  were  among  the  remnant  of 
Christians  left  on  the  lower  East  Side.  All  had 
been  born  there  of  Irish  parentage.  They  lived  in 
the  houses  bordering  on  the  edge  of  the  East 
River — old  houses  on  the  plan  of  the  first  tene- 
ments erected  in  New  York,  or  in  houses  de- 
signed for  one  family  and  now  holding  four  to 
eight.  Two  of  them  lived  in  houses  built  in  a 
row  erected  eighty-three  years  ago.  They  were 
two-story,  dormer  windows  and  basement  frame 
houses,  built  without  an  area,  the  door  to  the  base- 
ments opening  like  a  cellar  door  on  the  street. 
These  basements  were  occupied  by  a  family  each. 
Fourteen  of  these  houses  are  still  standing.  The 
people  in  this  section  live  a  life  entirely  their  own. 


92      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

They  have  been  crowded  out,  the  more  prosper- 
ous, by  the  Hebrews,  while  the  remnant  find  them- 
selves hemmed  in  by  them. 

These  people  live  in  the  confines  of  a  Roman 
Catholic  parish  that  twenty  years  ago  contained 
nearly  eleven  thousand  souls  of  that  faith.  Three 
years  ago  the  priest  in  charge  estimated  his  par- 
ish at  less  than  four  thousand,  and  that  four  thou- 
sand remained  because  they  were  too  poor  to  get 
away,  he  declared. 

The  Hebrews,  as  tenants  will,  on  the  same  block 
show  many  social  grades,  many  degrees  of 
poverty  and  prosperity,  many  stages  of  develop- 
ment in  American  civilization.  There  is  a  sense 
of  feeling  of  brotherhood  that  other  people  lack. 
The  houses  will  range  from  the  most  uncleanly, 
ill-kept,  to  the  new  tenement  with  ornate  entrance 
and  modern  improvements.  The  most  modern 
will,  on  entering,  be  found  with  walls  marked  and 
broken  when  the  wood-work  is  new.  No  one 
seems  troubled  by  this  destruction.  The  house- 
keeper does  not  struggle,  for  it  is  expected  and 
charged  for  in  the  rent.  Plumbing  is  of  the  sim- 
plest, for  it  is  expected  to  present  the  largest  per- 
centage of  loss  in  the  administration  of  the  prop- 
erty. One  of  the  most  elaborate  of  the  new 
tenements  erected  on  the  lower  East  Side  was  vis- 
ited three  months  after  it  was  occupied.     Every 


HOMES  UNDER  ONE  ROOF     93 

hallway  from  top  to  bottom  of  the  house  had 
broken  plaster  and  was  marked  by  pencil  and 
crayon.  The  plumber  was  then  a  daily  visitor. 
This  house  a  year  afterward  bore  on  the  interior 
evidences  that  years  of  hard  usage  might  have 
brought.  The  housekeeper  collected  rents  and  at- 
tended to  the  garbage.  She  was  utterly  indiffer- 
ent to  the  appearance  of  the  house,  which,  in- 
tended for  prosperous  families,  was  a  nest  of 
sweat-shops,  where  even  children  of  six  and  seven 
were  employed.  The  rents  had  been  collected; 
that  was  the  owner's  only  requirement. 

The  West  Side  is  congested,  because  manufac- 
ture and  storehouses  are  displacing  the  houses. 
Rents  are  high,  and  the  houses  for  the  most  part 
old  residences  occupied  by  several  families.  The 
people,  generally,  are  Americans.  They  are  deep- 
ly attached  to  this  old  section,  because  it  is  their 
birthplace;  and  for  many  of  them  an  even  deeper 
attachment  prevails,  for  this  section  was  the  birth- 
place of  parents.  The  houses  often  are  found  to 
have  life-long  friends,  often  relatives,  as  tenants. 
The  tenants  keep  the  halls  and  stairways  clean  in 
turn,  and  the  houses  generally  are  well  kept  up. 
Here  one  tenant  is  allowed  a  rebate  on  rent  for 
renting  rooms,  collecting  the  rent,  caring  for  the 
sidewalk  and  stoop,  the  garbage  and  ash-cans. 
The  majority  of  the  people  in  this  section  are 


94     LEAVEN    IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

Protestants.  The  Protestant  churches  are  well 
maintained.  The  Trinity  Corporation  supports 
kindergartens,  cooking  and  sewing  schools.  The 
Judson  Memorial  is  a  very  attractive  gymnasium, 
that  brings  children  from  as  far  west  as  the  North 
River.  The  Methodist  Church  holds  many  who 
in  no  other  section  could  find  the  same  equality 
and  freedom.  The  vocabulary  of  the  people 
through  this  section  shows  the  effect  of  the  newer 
activities  in  the  modern  churches;  the  effect  of 
the  enlarging  interests  of  the  children  in  art  and 
nature  through  the  public  school  education. 

While  the  people  are  living  on  small  incomes, 
often  on  uncertain  incomes,  life  is  lived  at  a  much 
higher  level  than  on  the  East  Side.  Children  are 
not  so  precocious  in  evil  knowledge.  This  dif- 
ference is  due  largely  to  the  fact  that  the  houses 
contain  three  and  four  families  at  the  most;  that 
the  apartment  houses  in  the  section  are  beyond 
the  reach  of  any  but  the  skilled  working  man.  He 
holds  his  own  at  high  rental  in  the  house  that 
shelters  but  three  other  families  like  his  own.  His 
neighbors  are  people  of  like  ambitions  as  his  own, 
and  demand  what  he  demands. 

The  housekeepers  in  this  section  differ  essen- 
tially in  their  relation  to  the  tenants  from  those 
of  the  more  heterogeneous  population  of  the  East 
Side   of   the   city.      One   resemblance   is   recog- 


HOMES  UNDER  ONE  ROOF     95 

nized — the  effect  of  the  character  of  the  house- 
keeper. Here,  as  on  the  East  Side,  to  a  very 
large  degree,  the  comfort,  health,  peace  and  good- 
will of  the  tenants  in  every  house  depends  on  the 
character  and  the  spirit  of  the  woman  who  con- 
trols the  property  for  the  landlord. 

The  law  of  natural  selection  holds  good.  The 
housekeeper  holds  the  tenants  who  are  satisfied 
with  the  conditions  she  creates.  They,  especially 
the  children,  develop  in  habits  of  cleanliness,  in 
care  of  property,  in  respect  for  the  rights  of  others, 
as  the  rules  of  the  house  enforced  by  the  house- 
keeper compel.  It  is  in  her  power  to  get  rid  of  those 
who  do  not  accept  her  dictates,  let  them  be  what 
they  may — just  or  unjust.  The  housekeeper  will 
make  her  presence  felt.  If  she  violates  the  law 
in  the  disposal  of  garbage  outside  of  the  house, 
tenants  will  violate  the  law  she  makes  for  them 
in  the  care  and  disposal  of  garbage  inside  the 
house.  If  she  is  compelled  to  obey  the  law,  she 
will  compel  tenants  to  obey  the  law.  It  is  this 
that  makes  the  morale  of  the  Department  of  Street 
Cleaning  so  important.  If  the  part  of  the  house 
which  in  renting  tenants  agree  to  keep  clean  is  not 
kept  clean,  the  observer  will  discover  that  the 
housekeeper  does  not  keep  her  part  of  the  agree- 
ment in  keeping  the  entrance  clean. 

A  large  factor  in  the  tenement  house  for  char- 


96      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

acter  building  or  destroying  is  the  housekeeper 
who  has  charge  of  it.  Where  she  is  well  paid  she 
makes  the  property  valuable.  She  cares  for  it, 
for  the  character  of  the  tenants.  Tenants  remain 
in  the  house  because  of  the  advantages  her  offices 
control  for  the  poor  man  and  his  wife  anxious 
to  provide  for  their  children's  best  welfare.  Prop- 
erty under  this  type  of  woman  resists  decay.  She 
holds  it  in  spite  of  the  decay  about  it.  The  char- 
acterless, slovenly,  indifferent  housekeeper  is  a 
factor  in  destroying  property,  because  of  the  de- 
structive character  of  the  tenants  who  will  tolerate 
her  and  her  methods. 

The  house  that  is  the  property  of  the  man  with 
"a  pull"  is  an  obstruction  to  civilization  almost 
impossible  to  overcome.  By  connivance  the 
law  is  inoperative.  If  pushed,  such  an  owner 
can  easily  rid  himself  of  the  tenants  who  attempt, 
or  have  attempted  for  them,  efforts  to  compel  the 
owners  to  repair  the  property.  A  mill  owner  on 
the  water  front  on  the  lower  East  Side  owned 
three  three-story  and  basement  houses  adjoining 
the  mill  property.  They  had  been  built  for  one 
family  each.  The  basements  were  altered  into 
stores,  and  the  floors  above  altered  at  the  least  cost 
to  accommodate  one  or  two  families.  This  meant 
two  inside  bedrooms  absolutely  without  ventila- 
tion.     The  tenants  of  this  property  and  all  in 


HOMES  UNDER  ONE  ROOF     97 

the  neighborhood  were  tormented  by  the  smoke 
and  gas  from  the  chimney  of  the  mill.  When 
the  wind  blew  directly  toward  the  houses,  win- 
dows were  kept  closed  for  hours  in  the  warmest 
weather.  All  the  tenants  dried  their  clothes  on 
pulley  lines.  Frequently  the  soot  made  the  clothes 
unwearable,  and  they  had  to  be  washed  the  second 
time.  Ten  years  of  effort  have  failed  to  compel 
the  building  of  the  chimney  of  that  mill  to  the 
legal  height. 

The  houses  the  mill  owner  owned  were  in  a  dis- 
graceful condition.  The  closets  in  the  yards  had 
no  flow  of  water.  The  engineer  of  the  mill  was 
required  to  carry  a  hose  from  the  mill  over  the 
fences  to  the  closets  to  flush  them.  Sometimes 
he  forgot  to  turn  the  water  off,  and  the  yards  were 
flooded  and  made  disgusting.  Sometimes  he  for- 
got for  days  at  s  time  to  flush  the  closets,  when 
the  conditions  were  even  worse.  Only  people 
who  were  helpless  or  hopeless  would  endure  such 
conditions.  One  of  the  workers  of  the  College 
Settlement  discovered  the  conditions  in  these 
houses.  She  took  immediate  steps  to  compel  the 
necessary  improvements.  The  owner  discovered 
that  the  wife  and  children  of  one  of  the  tenants 
went  to  clubs  at  the  Settlement,  and  he  ordered 
that  family  to  move.  Before  the  mother  moved 
her  education  had  begun,  and  she  imparted  to  her 


98      LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

neighbors  the  information  that  the  conditions 
were  unlawful  and  could  be  changed  if  they 
would  fight  for  it.  The  man  exacted  his  rent  on 
the  first  of  the  month ;  he  was  hard  and  unyield- 
ing; the  tenants  continued  the  warfare  until  he 
had  evicted  every  one  who  spoke  English  and 
filled  his  houses  with  foreigners.  One  of  the 
stores  is  used  for  storing  and  sorting  rags  and 
paper;  next  door  is  a  meat  shop.  The  fight 
was  given  up.  The  owner  had  "a  pull,"  and  the 
law  is  defied  to  this  day  on  that  property. 

All  the  land  on  the  river  front  in  this  neighbor- 
hood for  blocks  is  made  land,  filled  in  by  the  city 
refuse,  on  which  houses  were  built  years  ago. 
This  kind  of  property  extends  back  from  the 
North  River  for  three,  and  at  one  point  four, 
blocks.  In  some  of  the  houses  near  the  river  the 
high  tides  of  spring  and  fall  rise  in  the  cellars. 
The  College  Settlement  workers  who  visited  fami- 
lies in  one  of  these  houses  had  been  distressed 
by  the  amount  of  illness  in  it.  Malaria  had  at- 
tacked every  family.  Spring  and  fall  wages  were 
lost  at  times  by  as  many  as  three  wage-earners  in 
one  family  for  two  and  three  days  each  week.  In 
addition  to  loss  of  wages,  there  was  the  expense 
of  medicine  and  doctors.  At  last  came  the  urgent 
request  that  a  worker  should  call  on  a  girl  of  six- 
teen who  was  dying  of  consumption  on  the  first 


HOMES  UNDER  ONE  ROOF     99 

floor.  This  consisted  of  four  rooms,  two  being 
inside  bedrooms,  each  of  which  would  hold  a 
three-quarter  bed  and  a  chair  between  the  bed 
and  the  wall.  One  was  absolutely  unventilated, 
except  through  the  doors.  It  was,  in  fact,  a 
passage-way  between  the  front  and  rear  rooms. 
This  plan  is  the  usual  plan  in  houses  altered  from 
residences  for  one  family  to  a  tenement  house. 

The  door  of  the  other  bedroom,  which  opened 
into  the  large  room,  was  closed  at  night  because 
the  large  room  was  used  as  a  bedroom  by  the  male 
members  of  the  family  and  one  lodger.  The  girl 
of  sixteen  had  slept  with  two  others  in  that  room 
for  eight  years.  The  floors  of  the  four  rooms 
were  covered  with  carpets.  The  odor  was  sicken- 
ing. The  visitor  asked  the  tenant  who  brought 
her  to  the  sick  girl  what  caused  the  odor  percep- 
tible in  the  hall,  with  front  and  rear  windows  al- 
ways open,  unbearable  in  the  rooms  where  doors 
and  windows  were  closed. 

"Oh,  that!  The  water  has  been  in  the  cellar 
now  for  two  or  three  weeks.  The  tides  are  high 
now."  A  visit  to  the  cellar  showed  the  water  at 
the  height  of  the  second  step  of  the  cellar  stairs ; 
also  a  sewer  pipe  that  had  burst.  Visits  were 
made  to  the  proper  city  department  once  a  week 
for  eleven  weeks.  The  clerk,  on  the  last  visit,  evi- 
dently   intending    to    be    facetious,    said:    "Say, 


ioo    LEAVEN    IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

what's  the  matter  with  those  people  taking  baths 
in  that  cellar?    They  ain't  got  no  bathtubs." 

The  owner  of  the  property  had  "pull"  enough 
to  escape  even  an  investigation  by  the  department. 
It  was  years  before  the  cellar  of  that  house  was 
concreted  and  the  necessary  connections  of  pipes 
and  sewers  made.  It  was  done  when  the  prop- 
erty had  changed  hands  and  a  man  comparatively 
poor  and  wholly  free  from  political  affiliations  be- 
came the  owner. 

The  people  of  this  whole  region  are  the  victims 
of  political  corruption.  Some  of  them  have  more 
fear  of  offending  a  political  light,  let  his  glimmer 
be  ever  so  small,  than  of  offending  against  even 
God's  law.  They  could  be  turned  out  of  house 
and  home,  deprived  of  the  means  of  earning  a 
living,  by  men  who  openly  defy  the  law,  and  who 
become  heroes  to  the  growing  boys  and  girls  for 
no  reason  but  because  of  their  power  to  use  and 
defy  the  law. 

The  moral  natures  of  the  men  and  the  women 
who  grow  up  under  this  influence  are  dwarfed 
and  warped  until  it  is  impossible  for  them  to  have 
distinct  conceptions  of  right  and  wrong.  The 
education  they  receive  does  not  reveal  the  rela- 
tions of  ethics  to  life;  the  struggle  for  existence 
dulls  the  mind;  while  the  depleted  physical  condi- 
tions caused  by  bad  air,  mal-nutrition  and  igno- 


HOMES  UNDER  ONE  ROOF     101 

ranee  of  real  values  reduce  moral  resistance  al- 
most to  zero.  Enforce  the  tenement-house  laws, 
and  the  moral  strength  of  the  people  of  New  York 
will  rise  to  higher  levels  of  moral  resistance.  Not 
poverty,  but  the  burden  imposed  by  political  cor- 
ruption, is  the  blight  of  home  life  in  the  tenement- 
house  sections  of  New  York. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SLOW-DAWNING    CONSCIOUSNESS. 

In  a  preceding  chapter  an  attempt  was  made  to 
show  how  hopeless  the  task  of  home-making  was 
for  women  who  had  neither  knowledge  nor  ideals 
to  guide  them.  When  it  is  remembered  that  the 
environment  of  these  homes  was  in  itself  degrad- 
ing, to  maintain  even  the  semblance  of  a  home 
was  a  remarkable  achievement. 

These  women  knew  but  three  educating  influ- 
ences— home,  school  and  Church.  Four,  per- 
haps, if  one  chooses  to  count  the  streets,  where 
most  of  their  time  was  spent,  as  one.  The  value 
of  the  first  they  revealed  in  the  homes  they  made. 
The  school  at  the  time  it  was  a  factor  in  their  de- 
velopment was  a  place  that  had  no  connection 
with  anything  else  in  their  lives.  What  they 
learned  there  was  but  to  the  exceptional  few 
without  any  practical  value.  They  learned  to 
read  to  get  promoted,  or  because  they  could  not 
help  it.  The  arithmetic  which  they  found  val- 
uable they  learned  in  doing  errands  and  spending 
their  own  pennies.  They  learned  to  form  letters 
with  their  pens;  but  as  they  had  no  use  for  the 


DAWNING  CONSCIOUSNESS     103 

knowledge,  they  soon  forgot  it.  Their  concep- 
tion of  education  and  that  of  their  world  left  them 
perfectly  at  ease  in  their  accomplishment.  The 
Church  had  to  do  with  their  souls;  and  to  the 
majority  the  care  of  their  souls  was  a  delegated 
responsibility,  and  gave  them  little  concern,  if  any. 
Personal  effort  in  that  direction  was  a  matter  of 
old  age. 

The  Church  was,  by  its  own  traditions  and  sen- 
timent, a  spiritual  light  and  guide;  the  end  and 
aim  of  its  service  to  develop  spiritual  life  by  teach- 
ing and  prayer.  The  social  life  of  the  people, 
or,  for  that  matter,  the  civic  conditions  that  to 
the  last  degree  regulated  and  controlled  their 
pleasures,  were  not  the  concern  of  the  Church. 
The  parish  house  did  not  exist.  The  institutional 
church  had  not  been  conceived  even  in  thought. 

Yet  at  this  period,  1880  and  1881,  there  was  a 
growing  consciousness  that  something  was  wrong 
in  the  social  order ;  that  neither  churches,  schools 
nor  homes  were  meeting  the  necessities  of  the 
working  people  or  their  children.  The  Church 
found  itself  losing  ground;  the  people  could  not 
be  held  in  allegiance  to  it.  This  was  so  true  of 
the  Protestant  churches  downtown  that  already 
the  wisdom  of  moving  uptown  was  being  ques- 
tioned. Some  had  even  then  left  their  old  build- 
ings to  be  used  as  mission  churches ;  others  sold 


104    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

their  downtown  buildings,  moving  uptown,  giv- 
ing up  any  attempt  at  holding  the  masses,  who 
manifested  no  interest  in  the  Church  or  its  work. 
The  missions  then  established  were  and  are  main- 
tained with  more  or  less  wisdom  and  suc- 
cess. That  mistakes  should  be  made  was  natural. 
There  was  no  precedent  as  to  how  one  class  in  this 
democratic  community  should  work  for  another. 
It  took  years  for  the  churches  to  learn  that  the 
secret  of  success  was  in  working  with,  and  not  for, 
the  people. 

The  overcrowding  went  on.  Neighborhoods 
changed  so  rapidly  that  it  was  impossible  to  adopt 
any  system  to  meet  the  necessities  of  the  social 
conditions.  These  conditions  were  created  by 
race  standards  of  living,  pleasure  and  religion. 
No  man  or  organization  was  prepared  to  grap- 
ple with  them  intelligently,  for  they  viewed  them 
as  observers. 

The  Church  had  still  the  first  interpretation  of 
feeding  the  hungry,  clothing  the  naked,  visiting 
the  sick  and  those  in  prison.  Secular  work  was 
not  yet  a  part  of  the  redemptive  work  of  the 
Church.  Poverty  and  ignorance  reigned  where 
prosperity  and  intelligence  had  been.  The  mis- 
sion church  became  a  distributing  station.  It  was 
but  natural  that  the  men  and  women  who  fol- 
lowed Christ  in  their  lives  should  feed  and  clothe 


DAWNING  CONSCIOUSNESS     105 

the  hungry  and  the  naked.  It  was  quite  as  nat- 
ural that  people  whose  struggle  for  life  was 
constant,  a  struggle  in  which  they  were  rarely 
successful,  even  when  they  accepted  their  own 
standards  of  success,  should  develop  shrewdness 
in  securing  all  possible  aid  at  the  least  possible 
effort.  The  more  they  received  without  effort, 
the  easier  life  was  made  for  them.  This  was  one 
method  of  adjustment.  Where  there  were  sev- 
eral children  in  a  family  they  were  often  sent  to 
as  many  Sunday-schools.  The  churches,  all  un- 
consciously, for  a  long  period  carried  on  the  work 
of  the  missions  on  a  commercial  basis,  competing 
energetically  to  secure  attendants  at  mission  ser- 
vices and  Sunday-schools.  The  workers  found 
their  success  measured  by  the  numbers  that  ap- 
peared in  their  reports.  It  was  the  American 
standard  of  success.  It  became  profitable  to  go 
to  Sunday-school.  The  approach  of  the  holidays 
found  them  crowded.  The  mission  churches 
boomed.  They  provided  an  outlet  for  the  ener- 
gies of  devoted,  consecrated  men  and  women,  de- 
termined to  make  the  world  better  because  they 
were  in  it.  The  missions  were  an  outlet  for  the 
generous ;  for  the  men  and  the  women  who  con- 
sidered themselves  stewards  of  the  properties  in 
their  possession.  The  blunders  made  are  a  trib- 
ute to  the  faith  which  established  and  maintained 


106    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

churches.  The  very  blunders  of  those  years 
were  the  seeds  of  wisdom  these  latter  days  are  be- 
ginning to  garner  in  the  fruits  of  cooperation 
and  federation.  The  forces  are  beginning  to  mar- 
shal under  one  banner  and  emblem,  with  one  aim 
born  of  the  nineteenth  century  conception,  that 
Christ  taught  civic  duty  to  His  followers  when 
He  declared,  "Render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that 
are  Caesar's."  That  the  Church  is  the  guardian 
of  the  people's  rights,  as  well  as  their  example,  is  a 
long-delayed  conception.  It  has  taken  thirty 
years  to  bring  the  evolution  in  Church  work  from 
competition  to  cooperation  in  the  work  of  personal 
and  civic  regeneration. 

Many  of  the  difficulties  hardest  to  overcome 
have  grown  out  of  the  mistakes  of  those  years, 
when  the  rapid  influx  of  foreigners  changed  the 
character  of  the  people  of  the  tenement  regions, 
and  the  Church  failed  to  change  its  methods. 
They  came,  many  of  them,  paupers,  a  charge  at 
once  upon  the  charitable  and  the  humane.  Neither 
their  ignorance  nor  poverty  was  a  bar  to  their  citi- 
zenship; their  presence  on  the  municipal  stage  in 
the  character  of  voters,  sovereigns,  increased  the 
civic  problems  of  New  York,  and  naturally 
these  the  Church  problems. 

Unfortunately  the  charitable  work  of  the 
churches  was  too  often  left  to  the  management  of 


DAWNING  CONSCIOUSNESS     107 

sentimental  people,  who  failed  to  see  what  has 
been  forced  upon  workers  of  the  present  day :  that 
hunger  is  sometimes  a  moral  educator;  that  the 
salvation  of  a  family  may  sometimes  be  best  se- 
cured by  letting  them  suffer,  the  innocent  with  the 
guilty,  because  in  the  suffering  is  an  educating 
power  impossible  to  secure  in  any  other  way. 

One  evening  to  a  working-girls'  club  a  teacher 
in  a  mission  school  not  far  away  brought  a  girl 
of  sixteen,  introducing  her  as  one  of  her  girls  who 
had  been  in  her  class  two  years.  Privately  she 
told  one  of  the  directors  of  the  club  of  the  pov- 
erty of  the  girl's  family.  The  father  was  a  man  of 
seventy-five,  who  could  do  only  the  lightest  work, 
and  found  getting  the  work  he  could  do  very  dif- 
ficult. This  girl  was  the  eldest  of  seven  chil- 
dren, all  attending  the  mission.  "It  is  a  mys- 
tery what  would  become  of  the  family,  were  it 
not  for  what  the  mission  does  for  them,"  was  the 
comment  of  the  teacher.  A  close  inspection  of 
the  girl  did  not  reveal  distressing  poverty,  and 
the  directors  of  the  club  were  puzzled.  The  girl 
was  employed  in  a  store  at  a  very  small  salary. 
She  was  anxious  to  go  to  the  country.  Of  course, 
she  must  be  sent  away  without  any  cost  to  herself. 
She  doubted  if  the  family  could  spare  her  wages, 
even  if  she  could  go  free.  She  explained  that 
she  and  her  brothers  and  sisters   had  gone  in 


108     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

*  'Tribune  Fresh-Air  Parties,"  but  she  was  now 
too  old.  "The  trouble  with  our  family  is,"  she 
commented,  "that  we  are  all  too  old."  It  seemed 
a  hopeless  doctrine  to  become  fixed  in  the  mind 
of  a  girl  of  sixteen,  so  the  club  directors  secured 
a  vacation  for  her  through  the  Working-Girls' 
Vacation  Society,  deciding  that,  if  it  were  neces- 
sary, they  would  pay  the  mother  her  wages  for  the 
time  the  girl  was  away.  No  question  arose  as 
to  her  wages.  At  the  expiration  of  her  two 
weeks'  vacation,  when  she  should  have  been  pen- 
niless, she  appeared  at  the  club  in  a  new  hat  and 
gloves.  When  the  girl  joined  the  club  her  Sun- 
day-school teacher  paid  one  month's  dues.  She 
had  been  present  at  several  business  meetings ;  she 
had  seen  the  other  girls  paying  their  dues,  she  had 
heard  the  treasurer's  report,  but  she  never  at- 
tempted to  assume  her  financial  obligations.  She 
was  spoken  to  finally  in  regard  to  her  dues,  and 
responded  calmly  by  saying  she  could  not  pay  her 
dues;  she  had  no  money.  Various  suggestions 
were  made  as  to  the  possibility  of  her  paying  part. 
At  last,  to  relieve  the  club  treasury,  one  of  the  di- 
rectors said :  "I  will  pay  what  you  owe  and  one 
month  in  advance.  You  may  pay  me  as  you  can." 
The  girl  never  came  to  the  club  again.  No 
effort  was  made  to  trace  her,  as  she  contributed 
nothing  to  the  life  of  the  club,  and  many  girls 


DAWNING  CONSCIOUSNESS     109 

kept  their  dues  paid  who  dressed  far  more  plainly  ; 
these  very  girls  she  had  on  more  than  one  occa- 
sion treated  discourteously. 

Two  years  afterward  one  of  the  club  officers 
was  calling  on  a  friend.  "I  am  so  glad  you  came 
in,"  she  exclaimed.      "One  of  your  club  girls  is 

in  trouble  and  is  coming  here  with  Miss ,  a 

mission  worker  in  Dr.  's  church,  this  morn- 
ing. Now  you  can  help  solve  her  problem."  To 
have  a  member  of  a  working-girls'  club  go  to  an 
outsider  for  help  is  to  have  one  of  your  own  fam- 
ily appeal  to  strangers  in  time  of  need.  The  club 
worker  kept  still.  She  was  covered  with  shame. 
She  had  failed  to  establish  relations  with  one  it 
was  her  sole  purpose  to  help.  Who  the  girl  was 
she  did  not  know,  as  her  friend  had  forgotten 
the  girl's  name.  The  girl  came.  It  was  our  old 
friend  of  sixteen.  She  was,  as  may  be  imagined, 
not  pleased  to  see  the  director  of  the  club.  The 
history  of  that  family  is  fairly  indicative  of  how 
missions  were  conducted  at  that  time.  How  many 
of  them  are  conducted  at  the  present  with  the 
same  results?  Originally  this  family  was  found 
by  the  workers  of  a  mission  established  by  a 
wealthy  church,  and  apparently  in  need.  Rent  was 
paid;  food  and  clothes  provided;  doctors  sent 
when  necessary.  The  return  for  this,  as  tacitly 
agreed,  was  the  presence  of  the  children,  as  rap- 


no    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

idly  as  they  were  old  enough,  in  the  Sunday- 
school,  and  the  father  and  mother  at  the  Sunday 
evening  service,  the  only  service  this  mission 
maintained. 

The  timidity  of  the  first  contact  disappeared 
early.  The  wants  soon  outgrew  the  needs  of  the 
family.  The  mission  people  failed  to  respond  to 
the  wants,  and  watched  more  closely  what  it  cost 
the  church  to  meet  the  needs  after  the  first  years 
of  acquaintance.  This  was  not  to  be  borne.  The 
family  went  in  a  body  to  another  mission  of  the 
same  church  ten  blocks  away.  They  made  not 
the  slightest  effort  to  deceive,  for  they  did  not 
change  their  address.  Here  were  nine  persons  to 
add  to  the  roll  of  the  mission,  and  they  were 
added.  The  family  was  enthusiastically  wel- 
comed. No  impudent  or  intrusive  questions  were 
asked.  Shoes,  coats,  rent  money  in  whole  or  part 
was  generously  given.  At  the  end  of  two  years 
discoveries  were  made  that  led  the  mission  work- 
ers to  question  what  was  done  with  the  supplies 
provided.  The  family  would  not  stand  this. 
They  went  bodily  to  a  church  less  than  a  mile 
away,  still  living  at  the  old  address.  The  family 
was  again  taken  up  without  question.  That  the 
father  could  not  work  was  accepted  and  generosity 
was  increased.  The  other  missions  contrasted  un- 
favorably in  generous  impulses ;  the  girl  urged  her 


DAWNING  CONSCIOUSNESS     in 

former  classmates  to  join  the  last  mission.  The 
church  meanwhile  was  walking  by  faith  in  its 
treatment  of  the  poor;  aiming  to  live  up  to  the 
conception  of  its  days ;  strengthening  the  influence 
of  its  prayers  with  gifts  of  potatoes;  certainly  a 
great  advance  on  prayers  and  no  potatoes. 

At  about  this  time  a  young  girl  was  met  in  a 
Sunday-school  class  very  attractive,  always  well 
and  prettily  dressed.  She  had  been  in  the  Sun- 
day-school all  her  life,  and  had  joined  the  church 
with  her  mother,  a  gentle,  quiet  woman,  who 
leaned  on  her  daughter  for  guidance.  The  daugh- 
ter was  a  tower  of  strength.  By  accident  it 
was  learned  that  the  girl  was  a  wage-earner, 
working  with  her  mother  in  a  large  suit  house  in 
New  York ;  that  they  kept  house,  doing  the  house- 
work, even  the  washing  and  ironing,  before  and 
after  their  day's  work.  Added  to  this  they  made 
all  their  own  clothes,  which  must  have  involved  a 
vast  amount  of  labor,  as  they  both  dressed  well. 

The  position  of  this  mother  and  daughter  is 
fairly  typical  of  a  large  army  of  women  workers, 
and  explains,  in  part,  at  least,  why  two  women  of 
so  much  character  should  have  accepted  charity 
for  so  many  years  and  why  they  could  not  change 
their  economic  relation.  The  work  they  did  was 
to  a  degree  a  trade.  Each  was  a  special  "hand" 
on  a  certain  part  of  women's  suits.     They  were 


ii2     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

paid  by  the  piece.  When  they  had  work,  they 
made  good  wages;  but  the  seasons  were  short. 
The  beginning  of  every  season  found  them  in 
debt.  By  the  time  the  debt  was  paid  work  had 
grown  slack  or  stopped.  It  was  simply  impossi- 
ble to  get  beyond  this,  try  as  they  would.  When 
the  girl  broke  down,  she  explained  it  by  saying, 
"I  worked  all  night  to  finish  my  dress.  If  I  could 
buy  the  material  in  the  slack  season  I  could  make 
our  things  then.  We  never  have  the  money,  and 
they  have  to  be  made  just  when  work  is  hardest 
at  the  store."  She  was  but  nineteen.  The  girl 
was  pretty,  ambitious,  entirely  above  the  men  of 
her  own  station  in  refinement,  and  yet  quite  as  far 
beneath  the  brothers  of  the  girls  she  met  in  her 
Sunday-school  class.  She  lived  in  mental  terror 
lest  they  should  attempt  to  call  on  her.  It  was 
pitiful  to  see  the  struggle  she  made  to  conceal  the 
fact  that  she  was  poor.  The  other  girls  knew  she 
worked,  knew  the  church  helped  the  family,  but 
were  very  tactful  in  assisting  her  in  keeping  her 
secret. 

When  the  mother  came  to  the  notice  of  the  offi- 
cers of  the  church  she  was  a  widow  with  three 
young  children,  one  a  baby.  She  could  support 
her  family  if  the  rent  was  paid.  The  church  offi- 
cers were  glad  to  do  this.  They  did  not  support 
a   mission    and   had    very   little   outlet    for   the 


DAWNING  CONSCIOUSNESS     113 

church's  generosity,  except  the  mission  societies 
— Home  and  Foreign — to  which  they  were  de- 
voted as  a  church. 

For  thirteen  years  the  church  had  been  faithful 
to  its  promise  and  paid  the  rent.  Nobody  ques- 
tioned the  mother  as  to  how  her  children  were 
getting  on,  or  what  was  being  done  to  make  them 
self-supporting.  The  younger  were  two  boys. 
When  they  were  large  enough  to  play  on  the  street, 
the  mother  put  them  in  an  institution  and  paid  a 
small  sum  for  them.  The  girl  went  to  work  with 
the  mother  as  soon  as  she  could.  The  elder  boy 
came  home  at  fourteen  and  became  a  wage-earner. 
He  was  troublesome,  most  difficult  to  manage, 
was  out  of  work  more  time  than  he  was  employed, 
and  yet  he  would  not  when  unemployed  even  keep 
the  fire,  that  the  house  might  be  comfortable  when 
his  mother  and  sister  came  home.  They  always 
left  the  house  in  order  when  they  went  to  work, 
but  found  it  littered  when  they  returned.  The  boy 
had  no  sense  of  moral  responsibility  for  his 
own  support.  His  temper  was  wholly  untrained. 
At  the  time  the  family  history  was  connected, 
the  youngest  boy  was  to  come  home,  and  natu- 
rally his  return  was  dreaded.  The  mother  and 
daughter  met  the  problem  unaided  as  to  advice  or 
suggestion.  Apparently  the  church  would  con- 
tinue to  pay  the  rent  without  question,  though 


ii4    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

there  were  three,  and  would  soon  be  four,  wage- 
earners  in  the  family. 

When  these  facts  were  discovered,  the  church 
committee  was  asked  to  advance  money  enough  to 
pay  for  the  girl's  lessons  at  a  school  wrhere  dress- 
cutting  was  taught,  and  to  notify  the  widow  that 
her  rent  would  no  longer  be  paid. 

The  girl  accepted  the  offer  at  once.  She  proved 
a  great  success,  and  to-day  is  earning  a  salary  as  a 
designer  equal  to  that  of  many  college  professors. 
She  educated  her  younger  brother  in  a  profession, 
and  has  entirely  forgotten  the  days  when  the 
church  helped  her.  Her  social  affiliations  are  in 
another  part  of  the  city,  and  she  bows,  or  forgets 
to  bow,  when  she  meets  those  who  may  remember 
it,  as  they  would,  to  her  credit.  Had  the  church 
retained  its  claim  on  her  through  its  financial  aid, 
she  would  not  be  where  she  is  to-day.  Her  de- 
velopment came  when  the  church  made  another 
future  possible  to  her  by  refusing  to  pauperize  the 
family. 

We  all  know  the  families  who  have  more  tur- 
keys at  Christmas  than  members.  We  still  have 
churches  and  sewing  schools  in  the  same  neigh- 
borhood, giving  their  Christmas  entertainments 
at  different  hours  and  at  different  dates,  to  suit 
the  convenience  of  those  who  attend  both  and 
profit  thereby.    We  even  have  different  entertain- 


DAWNING  CONSCIOUSNESS     115 

ments  given  for  different  branches  of  work  in  the 
same  church  at  different  hours.  We  succeeded 
in  impressing  one  boy  with  the  idea  that  what  he 
received  at  the  various  organizations  maintained 
for  his  profit  was  "Christmas  loot,"  and  that  he 
was  clever  at  getting  more  than  his  share.  We 
have  become  accustomed  to  conducting  an  ex- 
change after  our  Christmas  entertainments,  be- 
cause in  giving  we  have,  unfortunately,  duplicated 
the  gifts  received  elsewhere.  Mollie  finds  her- 
self with  two  dolls  and  no  bed,  and  Katie  has  two 
beds  and  no  doll,  and  Alice  has  two  sets  of  dishes 
and  no  table.  Like  fate  has  attended  the  gifts  to 
the  boys.  We,  as  a  result,  enact  the  role  of  pa- 
tient, sweet  generosity  and  redistribute  gifts. 

We  know  that  comparisons  are  made  as  to 
which  church,  sewing  school  or  club  is  the  one  to 
give  the  major  portion  of  the  coming  year's  at- 
tendance. But  all  this  will  disappear  as  rapidly 
as  sectarianism  and  competition  between  churches 
and  in  philanthropic  effort  disappear.  Compe- 
tition created  it;  cooperation  will  dispel  it,  be- 
cause all  will  come  to  a  higher  conception  of  the 
relations  of  efforts  toward  improvement.  Then 
the  "profit"  of  church  and  Sunday-school  attend- 
ance will  not  be  measured  by  the  "things"  dis- 
tributed. 

Nothing  marks  the  growth  of  public  intelli- 


n6    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

gence  more  than  the  federations,  and  the  systems 
that  have  grown  out  of  the  knowledge  of  the  in- 
jury done  the  poor  by  misplaced  generosity. 
Sometimes  the  children  of  the  poor  seem  uncanny 
in  the  knowledge  they  possess  of  how  to  use  the 
public  and  private  charities. 

A  girl  of  seventeen  gave  astonishing  evidence 
of  this  in  a  family  crisis.  She  was  a  member  of  a 
working-girls'  club;  quiet,  studious,  reserved. 
She  was  always  one  of  the  poorest  dressed  girls 
in  the  club.  Her  devotion  to  those  classes  which 
she  joined  and  attended  regularly  attracted  the 
attention  and  admiration  of  the  club  directors. 
Discovering  that  her  dress  was  in  part  responsible 
for  the  treatment  accorded  her  by  two  or  three 
members,  it  was  decided  to  make  it  possible  for 
her  to  make  a  better  appearance.  She  had  shown 
qualities  which,  if  allowed  free  play,  would  make 
her  an  influential  member  of  the  club. 

It  was  discovered  that  she  attended  a  near-by 
mission  of  a  Congregational  church.  Consulta- 
tion with  the  mission  workers  brought  the  unwel- 
come knowledge  that  the  mother  was  immoral, 
hopelessly  immoral,  but  that  her  children  loved 
her  dearly  and  that  she  was  devoted  to  them.  The 
paying  of  rent  seemed  to  support  a  shelter  that 
ought  not  to  exist,  but  no  one  had  the  courage  to 
attempt    to    separate    the    mother    and    children. 


DAWNING  CONSCIOUSNESS     117 

Even  this  girl  of  seventeen  had  no  idea  of  her 
mother's  wrong-doing.  It  was  a  case  that  needed 
the  wisdom  of  Solomon  to  solve.  Just  before 
Christmas  the  mother  fell  ill.  The  passion  of 
grief  that  convulsed  that  group  of  children  was 
convincing  testimony  of  the  mother's  tenderness 
and  devotion.  Her  eyes  followed  them  constant- 
ly. When  able  to  speak,  she  would  whisper: 
"What  will  become  of  them  ?  There  is  no  one  to 
care  for  them."  She  was  removed  to  a  hospital, 
with  the  knowledge  that  the  rent  had  been  paid 
for  a  month  and  that  the  children  would  be  looked 
after.  She  died  two  days  later.  When  the  house 
was  visited  that  morning,  the  elder  girl  was  out 
"getting  things,"  the  children  said.  When  she 
came  in,  she  was  told  that  provision  had  been 
made  to  send  them  all  together  to  a  home,  where 
they  would  not  be  separated  for  a  month.  The  girl 
sprang  to  her  feet,  grabbed  the  fifteen-months-old 
baby  from  the  floor,  and  swept  the  others  in  a  cir- 
cle about  her.  She  panted,  rather  than  said : 
"You  shall  not  take  the  baby  away!  I  will  not 
let  them  go !  Nobody  shall  take  them.  They  are 
mine.  I  can  take  care  of  them.  You  just  pay  the 
rent.  I  can  do  everything  else.  See?"  She  put 
the  baby  down,  and  thrusting  her  hands  into  her 
pockets,  brought  out  tickets  to  the  Diet  Kitchen, 
the  Charities  Department  for  coal  and  groceries. 


ti8     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

She  had  been  to  two  missionaries  connected  with 
different  churches  she  knew,  and  secured  orders 
on  a  near-by  grocery  for  dry  groceries.  There 
was  not  a  public  or  private  charity  that  gave  out- 
door assistance  that  that  girl  of  seventeen  did 
not  know  just  what  must  be  done  to  get  their  help. 
The  amount  of  knowledge  of  this  kind  that  she 
possessed  was  astounding. 

Besides,  there  was  not  an  institution  in  the  city 
where  children  were  taken  for  longer  or  shorter 
periods  of  time  that  she  did  not  know.  In  many 
of  them  she  had  been  herself.  In  others  she  had 
visited  the  other  children  of  the  family  when  they 
were  inmates.  She  found  out  the  defects  of  each 
one — the  kind  of  matron,  of  food,  of  punishments 
that  governed  in  each,  and  made  out  a  case  against 
each  one.  White,  with  blazing  eyes,  she  looked 
capable  of  doing  just  what  she  said  she  would  do, 
take  care  of  the  family  of  five  little  children.  They 
were  grouped  about  her,  clinging  to  her,  all  cry- 
ing in  the  face  of  the  awful  calamity  that  was 
about  to  befall  them — separation.  It  was  agreed 
that  they  should  stay  where  they  were  for  the  bal- 
ance of  the  month.  The  question  of  the  future 
beyond  that  would  be  discussed  later.  The  girl 
quieted  down. 

The  mother  had  been  insured  in  one  of  the  in- 
surance companies  on  the  weekly  payment  plan. 


DAWNING  CONSCIOUSNESS     119 

The  girl  had  secured  an  undertaker  who  would 
go  to  the  hospital  and  take  the  mother's  body  to 
his  establishment  for  the  funeral  to  be  held  the 
next  morning. 

"We  will  have  our  own  minister,"  she  said, 
with  dignity,  "not  the  mission."  Her  visitors 
were  again  astounded.  The  mission  had  looked 
after  the  family  for  years.  The  girl  had  for  sev- 
eral years  been  connected  with  the  Sunday-school. 
The  address  of  the  minister  was  secured.  The 
girl  explained :  "My  mother  was  confirmed  in 
that  church,  in  her  own  country,  her  own  home. 
She  had  a  letter  to  the  church  when  she  came  to 
this  country  with  my  father  after  they  were  mar- 
ried. At  first  my  father  earned  good  money,  but 
he  got  sick  and  they  did  not  get  along,  and  my 
mother  stopped  going  there,  except  to  commu- 
nion; and  for  three  years  now  she  ain't  had  the 
clothes  to  go  even  then.  She  had  us  confirmed 
there  as  soon  as  we  were  old  enough,  and  we  went 
there  to  communion  when  we  had  the  clothes. 
The  minister  is  going  to  come  to  the  funeral,  and 
I  am  going  to  send  word  to  some  of  mother's 
friends  from  the  old  country  who  go  there  to 
church.  I  could  not  have  them  come  here ;  moth- 
er would  feel  awful."  Glancing  about  the 
barren,  dirty  rooms  with  a  look  of  scorn,  she  con- 
tinued :    "We  could  not  let  our  church  friends 


120    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

know  how  poor  we  are.  Mother  tried  hard 
enough.  She  was  away  from  home  days  at  a  time 
looking  for  work.  She  took  boarders.  She  did 
everything  she  could.  You  know  I've  worked 
when  I  could  get  it."  Her  voice  broke  for  the 
first  time.  "She  took  boarders  and  gave  them  the 
beds;  we  all  slept  on  the  floor.  She  married  the 
last  boarder,  the  baby's  father.  She  told  me  to 
stay  here  until  he  came  home,  this  month — he's  a 
sailor — and  to  do  just  what  he  says.  He  was  al- 
ways kind  to  me  and  gave  me  things.  You've 
paid  the  rent,  and  you  need  not  do  anything  more. 
I'll  stay  right  here  and  keep  the  children  till  the 
baby's  father  comes  home;  you  need  not  trouble 
any  more." 

She  was  quiet  a  moment,  but  evidently  felt  the 
doubt  and  the  decision  in  her  visitors'  minds.  Ris- 
ing, she  said  fiercely:  'Til  not;  I'll  never  let  these 
children  be  taken  from  me !" 

The  problem  was  too  much  for  her  visitors. 
They  decided  to  leave  the  question  of  the  imme- 
diate future  to  the  family's  own  minister,  who 
certainly  had  not  carried  these  lambs  in  his  arms, 
nor  watched  very  closely  over  their  erring  mother. 

The  family  was  separated.  Nothing  else  was 
possible.  The  baby's  father  repudiated  any  re- 
sponsibility for  any  of  the  children,  and  disap- 
peared.     The  girl  drooped  for  a  time  after  the 


DAWNING  CONSCIOUSNESS     iai 

separation;  but  she  finally  secured  a  good  home, 
making  a  capable,  devoted  servant  until  she  mar- 
ried. She  owes  allegiance  only  to  her  own  church, 
saying:  "The  minister  talked  so  beautifully  at 
mother's  funeral."  Her  whole  conception  of  the 
mission  church  is  that  it  is  an  institution  for  help- 
ing the  poor. 

She  never  doubted  her  mother,  whose  picture, 
enlarged  from  a  small  photograph,  is  the  chief 
ornament  in  her  parlor,  her  most  cherished  pos- 
session, outside  of  her  husband  and  children. 

In  spite  of  the  outburst  of  passionate  devotion 
at  the  time  of  her  mother's  funeral,  this  woman, 
now  with  a  comfortable  home  of  her  own,  knows 
nothing  of  the  children  for  whose  protection  she 
attained,  for  a  time  at  least,  sublime  heroism.  In 
a  few  months  her  indifference  was  as  astonishing 
as  her  devotion  had  been.  Her  own  life  and  its 
concerns  filled  her  mental  horizon  to  their  entire 
exclusion.  For  her  own  home  and  children  she 
has  the  passionate  love  that  she  gave  to  her  moth- 
er and  the  crowd  of  half-brothers  and  sisters.  She 
is  ambitious  for  her  children,  and  has  two  in  the 
High  School.  This  woman  is  a  fair  illustration 
of  the  evolution  that  is  making  this  nation  great. 

The  churches,  when  first  the  social  disintegra- 
tion began,  had  neither  the  intelligence  born  of 
experience  nor  the  money  to  place  the  mission 


T22     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

work  in  charge  of  people  of  high  intellectual  and 
social  development.  There  were  no  training 
schools  for  Christian  workers,  and  to  that  de- 
gree the  Church  was  hampered  in  inaugurating  its 
work  among  the  poor.  The  selection  was  too 
often  a  question  of  pleasing  some  wealthy  member 
of  the  church,  by  giving  positions  to  proteges  who 
had  absolutely  no  qualification  for  the  work  but 
their  necessities.  This  basis  of  selection — not  yet 
wholly  eliminated — put  the  work  of  the  missions 
under  the  control  of  men  and  women  who  lacked 
social  training.  Neither  by  nature  nor  grace  were 
they  fitted  for  the  work  they  attempted  to  do. 

Their  attitude  of  mind  was  too  often  that  of 
patron,  which,  as  any  one  of  experience  knows, 
is  one  of  the  most  demoralizing  influences  active 
among  the  poor. 

There  comes  to  mind  now  a  downtown  church, 
the  mission  of  one  of  the  leading  uptown 
churches.  It  was  Thanksgiving  evening.  For 
weeks  placards  had  been  on  the  front  of  the  build- 
ing announcing  an  entertainment  for  that  evening, 
to  which  all  the  people  were  invited.  On  the  plat- 
form were  a  number  of  young  men  and  women, 
sons  and  daughters  of  the  uptown  church  mem- 
bers, the  entertainers  for  the  evening. 

The  church  was  packed  with  the  people  of  the 
region,  self-respecting  poor.      The  mission,  for- 


DAWNING  CONSCIOUSNESS     123 

tunately  for  them,  was  limited  in  money,  so  its 
possibility  for  pauperizing  was  limited  to  just  that 
degree.  The  mission  pastor,  before  the  entertain- 
ment began,  opened  with  a  prayer,  in  which 
he  thanked  God  for  the  warm-hearted,  generous 
people  who  were  giving  themselves  and  their 
money  for  the  uplifting  of  the  poor  and  degraded. 
God  was  asked  to  implant  a  feeling  of  gratitude  in 
the  hearts  of  those  assembled  to  enjoy  this  pure 
entertainment  provided  for  their  benefit.  When 
he  opened  his  eyes  he  continued  his  theme  in  two 
variations  for  twenty  minutes  longer,  in  what  he 
called  an  address.  It  was  this  attitude  of  mind 
on  the  part  of  many  of  the  workers  that  drove 
out  of  the  church  the  mass  of  the  poor ;  that  began 
the  breach  that  has  widened,  until  in  September, 
1 90 1,  we  stand  appalled  as  we  realize  all  that  has 
entered  into  the  making  of  that  awful  national 
tragedy. 

The  standards  of  cleanliness  and  beauty  main- 
tained in  the  mission  churches  have  been  far  from 
what  they  should  be.  As  the  visitor  enters  to-day 
one  of  the  first  buildings  erected  on  the  East  Side 
as  a  mission  church,  he  is  repelled  by  the  general 
air  of  neglect;  the  dirt  on  walls  and  ceiling,  made 
still  more  repellent  by  water  stains  from  leaks ;  the 
ugliness  of  the  whole  interior,  as  well  as  the 
entire  lack  of  adaptation  to  the  work  of  to-day, 


124    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

which  one  of  the  most  devoted  of  pastors,  a  friend 
to  every  man,  woman  and  child  in  the  region,  is 
establishing.  There  is  not  one  thing  in  that  build- 
ing that  is  not  ugly  and  cheap.  The  very  plat- 
form on  which  the  pastor  preaches  lacks  furniture, 
that  would  impart  an  air  of  cheer  or  impressive- 
ness.  Instead  of  the  building  being  an  unconscious 
influence  in  the  neighborhood  for  beauty,  tidiness, 
cleanliness,  it  is  a  part  of  the  general  result  of  the 
greed  and  poverty  which  has  made  one  of  the 
most  sordid,  character-destroying  neighborhoods 
in  New  York. 

One  Sunday  afternoon,  as  the  writer  was  pass- 
ing this  building,  the  children  began  pouring  out 
of  it.  The  Sunday-school  had  just  closed.  They 
yelled,  fought,  ran.  Suddenly  they  discovered  a 
half-drunken  wretch  of  a  woman  reeling  down  the 
street.  The  elder  boys  pulled  her  clothes, 
dragged  off  her  hat,  tormented  her,  yelling  and 
laughing  at  the  foul  language  they  called  forth. 
It  was  appalling,  yet  not  surprising.  The  build- 
ing remains  as  first  erected.  No  attempt  has  been 
made  to  adapt  it  to  the  needs  of  the  region.  It 
was  built  for  church  and  Sunday-school  services, 
and  the  work  which  the  devoted,  consecrated  pas- 
tor has  put  into  it  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  time 
is  done  under  conditions  that  make  the  highest 
success  impossible.      There  is  not  a  room  in  the 


DAWNING  CONSCIOUSNESS     125 

neighborhood  for  boys'  clubs,  for  reading-room, 
for  pleasure,  where  boy  nature  can  have  the 
fullest  expression  under  wise  direction.  For 
adults  the  saloon  and  the  streets  are  the  only  re- 
sources outside  of  their  overcrowded  homes.  The 
pastor  knows  that  to  succeed  in  changing  the  char- 
acter of  that  neighborhood  it  is  necessary  to  hold 
the  people  through  seven  days  of  the  week.  He 
knows  that  this  can  be  done  if  he  can  provide  for 
the  people  pleasures,  opportunities  that  express 
their  social  development.  He  knows  that 
people  express  themselves  in  their  pleasures, 
and  that,  whether  they  will  or  not,  that 
expression  is  controlled  by  environment.  If  the 
trustees  will  not,  cannot  be  made  to  see  this,  let 
the  pastor  of  the  mission  be  what  he  will,  his  work 
will  be  limited  by  the  men  who,  in  the  very  nature 
of  their  relations  to  the  mission,  cannot  see  the 
truth. 

The  pastor  of  the  mission  had  a  long  vacation 
given  him.  The  man  sent  to  take  his  place  wore 
soiled  linen,  would  sit  for  an  hour  at  a  time  tipped 
on  the  back  legs  of  his  chair.  He  would  refer 
to  the  people  in  their  presence  as  "they"  and 
"these  people."  One  of  the  young  men  who  be- 
longed to  a  club  where  some  attention  had  been 
paid  to  manners  and  dress  said  one  night :  "Say, 
wouldn't  you  think  that  feller  would  wear  clean 


126    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

collars,  and  stand  up  when  talking  to  a  lady?  I 
don't  care  if  he  is  a  minister,  he  ain't  much.', 

The  people  who  were  responsible  for  putting 
that  man  in  that  position  were  generous,  held  the 
best  social  positions,  filled  responsible  positions  in 
the  commercial  world.  Not  one  of  them  would 
have  chosen  that  man  to  represent  them  in  the 
business  world,  because  of  his  carelessness  in 
dress  and  lack  of  manners.  But  they  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  send  him  to  represent  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
to  the  poor ;  not  a  demoralized  and  degraded  peo- 
ple, but  a  self-respecting  body  of  Americans,  born 
and  trained,  so  far  as  they  had  been  trained,  to 
believe  in  the  equality  of  man  under  the  flag  and 
before  God.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  the  more  in- 
telligent of  the  people  resented  the  placing  of  this 
man  over  them,  and  remained  away  from  the 
church  of  which  he  had  charge?  His  person,  his 
mind  or  his  manners  were  not  contradictory. 

One  evening,  going  through  the  audience  room 
of  this  building  on  an  errand  to  the  rear  room,  the 
visitor  heard  one  of  the  women  missionaries  say 
to  a  little  girl  who  had  evidently  been  trouble- 
some and  inattentive:  "If  you  don't  sit  still,  Mol- 
lie,  I'll  come  there  and  shake  you  until  you'll  be 
glad  to  sit  still."  The  woman  was  training  a 
group  of  little  girls  to  take  part  in  a  Christmas 
entertainment.      They  were  each  to  recite  a  verse 


DAWNING  CONSCIOUSNESS     127 

and  turn  a  gold  paper-covered  letter  as  they  re- 
cited, so  that  when  the  last  one  had  spoken  her 
verse  the  sentence  "Glory  to  God  in  the  highest, 
peace  on  earth  and  good-will  to  men"  would  be 
revealed.  The  woman,  in  temper,  language,  con- 
ception of  her  duty  to  these  children,  differed  in 
nowise  from  their  ignorant,  tired,  worried  moth- 
ers at  home,  who  probably  made  no  claim  as  a 
teacher  of  morals  and  religion.  What  ideals  of 
womanhood  did  this  woman  represent  ? 

A  minister  came  to  attend  the  funeral  of  a  little 
baby  in  a  surplice  so  soiled  and  rumpled  that  a 
friend  of  the  mother,  who  was  a  good  laundress, 
said  afterward :  "I  wish  he'd  given  me  that  yes- 
terday morning.  I  would  have  washed  and 
ironed  it."  "He  wouldn't  have  worn  it  if  it  had 
been  a  rich  man's  child,"  was  the  little  mother's 
response.  "Well,  he  acted  like  his  surplice,  rum- 
pled," said  the  first  speaker.  And  the  writer  was 
struck  with  the  perfect  characterization  of  the 
man's  manner. 

Fortunately,  there  are  men  who  see  the  divine 
in  every  human  being;  who  know  that  sorrow, 
grief,  shame  and  suffering  bear  as  cruelly,  as  bit- 
terly on  the  poor  as  the  rich,  and  in  their  ministra- 
tion know  no  difference  between  them. 

The  writer  was  present  at  a  funeral  in  an  East 
Side  home  in  a  tenement  having  sixteen  families. 


128     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

A  wife  and  mother  had  died.  The  family  occu- 
pied the  floor  through.  Nothing  was  known  to 
the  writer  of  the  creed  of  the  family,  though  she 
had  known  them  for  years.  The  minister  came 
in  a  spotless  surplice,  most  carefully  put  on.  His 
manner  of  greeting  the  family  and  friends  was  so 
expressive  of  fraternal  sympathy  that  one  felt  it 
a  privilege  to  witness  it.  He  stood  in  that  East 
Side  home  the  herald  of  hope.  Since  the  blow 
had  fallen  he  had  visited  it  every  day.  On  the 
day  of  the  funeral  he  had  so  filled  the  hearts  in 
that  home  with  the  spirit  of  resignation  that  the 
lesson  that  it  taught  left  an  impress  on  all  who 
were  present.  Not  once  in  the  earnest  address 
did  he  use  the  word  "death/'  It  was  "release," 
and  he  made  all  feel  that  gratitude  for  relief  from 
cruel  suffering  was  the  occasion  for  the  assem- 
bling of  the  friends  together.  He  gave  out  the 
hymn  "Nearer,  My  God,  to  Thee."  There  was  no 
musical  instrument  in  the  home.  All  present 
were  wage-earners.  The  writer  trembled  for  the 
result.  The  minister's  beautiful  tenor  voice 
started  the  hymn,  assisted  at  once  by  boys'  voices 
in  the  different  rooms.  He  had  brought  the  choir 
of  his  church  to  assist,  and  stationed  them  through 
the  rooms  by  direction  before  they  came  to  the 
house.  The  people  all  sang.  When  the  services 
were  over,  this  minister  remained  with  the  family, 


i 


A    SPIRITUAL    BULWARK. 


DAWNING  CONSCIOUSNESS     129 

a  courtesy  which  to  the  poor  is  so  unusual  that  the 
memory  of  it  is  still  one  of  the  events  of  life  on 
the  East  Side. 

This  represents  this  clergyman's  attitude  to- 
ward his  people ;  and  all  who  are  their  friends  are 
his  people.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  they  never  go 
beyond  his  care?  He  has  baptized  the  children 
of  three  generations.  Easter  service  is  the  home- 
coming of  these  families.  They  come  from  as 
far  as  they  have  money  to  pay  their  fare.  The 
gray  stone  church  is  pretty.  It  has  stained-glass 
windows,  a  baptistry,  and  maintains  a  surpliced 
choir.  It  is  delightful  to  see  the  positive  influ- 
ence of  these  accessories  on  the  people.  Other 
churches  to  which  they  have  access  lack  them,  and 
the  contrast  deepens  the  love  for  the  old  church. 
It  needs  renovating,  a  parish  house,  a  corps  of 
modern  workers.  But  these  can  well  be  dispensed 
with  while  that  towering  gray  head  leads 
the  people.  For  the  noble,  unselfish  life  of  the  man 
stands  before  them  always,  the  embodiment  of 
eternal  love  and  sympathy,  interpreting  both  un- 
der conditions  that  would  at  times  seem  to  justify 
doubt. 

There  is  another  phase  of  the  Church's  attitude 
toward  its  work  in  the  poorer  districts  that  lies 
at  the  root  of  the  rejection  of  the  Church  by  the 
majority  of  the  thinking,  self-respecting  poor,  and 


i3o    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

that  is  the  assembling  of  the  poor  together  as  an 
exhibit  of  its  work;  the  making  of  reports  of 
which  the  poor  are  the  statistics.  The  defence 
that  this  is  necessary  to  stimulate  the  interest  of 
the  rich,  and  by  that  means  secure  the  money  for 
the  continuing  of  the  work  in  the  poorer  sections 
of  the  city,  is  but  the  evidence  of  the  lack  of  spir- 
itual life  in  the  Church;  the  absence  of  the  very 
foundation  of  Christianity  and  brotherly  love. 

The  consciousness  that  watching  the  hungry 
eating  Christmas  and  Thanksgiving  dinners  is 
hardly  what  Christ  meant  when  he  gave  forth  the 
decree,  "Feed  my  lambs,"  is  becoming  a  convic- 
tion ;  but  it  is  due  to  the  positive  teaching  of  work- 
ers outside  of  the  Church,  who  felt  the  irrepara- 
ble loss  of  self-respect  that  must  follow  from  such 
an  exhibition.  To  gather  the  beneficiaries  of 
their  generosity  together  and  take  stock,  as  it 
were,  of  the  investments,  the  dividends  of  which 
are  to  be  realized  wholly  in  the  future  life,  has  an- 
tagonized the  self-respecting  poor.  They  refuse  to 
assemble  as  objects  of  interest,  even  in  a  church. 

So  dense  is  the  spiritual  perception  of  even 
some  very  good  people,  so  materialistic  is  the 
plane  on  which  work  for  the  poor  is  conducted  in 
some  churches,  that  the  results  have  been  cruel — 
unconscious  on  the  part  of  the  offenders — but  nev- 
ertheless cruel. 


DAWNING  CONSCIOUSNESS     131 

A  group  of  very  young  girls  worked  in  a  fac- 
tory on  the  borders  of  a  section  in  which  lived 
people  of  wealth  and  intelligence.  The  factory 
made  no  provision  for  a  lunch  room.  When  the 
weather  permitted,  the  girls  ate  their  lunches  on 
the  curbs  and  on  the  stoops  of  houses  in  the  im- 
mediate neighborhood.  This  was  demoralizing 
to  the  girls  and  distressing  to  several  women  in 
the  neighborhood.  Not  far  away  was  a  large 
house  hired  and  controlled  by  a  church  long  noted 
for  its  broadness  and  its  generosity.  The  base- 
ment of  the  house  was  not  used,  except  twice  a 
week  in  the  evening  by  a  working-girls'  club. 
The  use  of  this  basement  from  half-past  eleven  till 
one  was  asked  for  and  granted. 

The  plan  was  to  have  a  woman  arrange  the  ta- 
bles, make  tea,  and  wash  the  dishes  used  by  the 
girls  each  day.  The  girls  were  to  pay  five  cents 
a  week  for  the  use  of  the  room  and  the  tea.  They 
were  to  bring  their  own  lunches.  The  plan  met 
with  their  warmest  approval,  and  the  lunch  room 
was  opened,  with  three  young  girls  from  a  soci- 
ety in  the  church  to  help.  The  girls  poured  their 
own  tea.  For  three  days  everything  promised 
well.  The  girls  accepted  the  one  condition  im- 
posed, that  they  would  go  quietly  to  and  from  the 
factory  at  the  noon  hour,  to  avoid  comments  from 
the  residents  about.     The  fourth  day  some  of  the 


132     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

righteous,  energetic  souls  belonging  to  the  church 
thought  they  would  see  the  result  of  their  gener- 
ous gift  of  the  use  of  the  room  for  which  they 
had  no  other  use. 

Nine  of  them,  personally  conducted  by  one  of 
the  assistant  ministers,  crowded  the  two  doorways 
to  see  these  girls  eat  the  lunch  they  brought  from 
their  own  homes  and  drink  the  tea  for  which  they 
were  paying  all  they  had  been  asked  to  pay.  One 
small  girl,  with  her  hair  still  hanging  in  braids 
down  her  back,  tried  in  every  way  to  break  off* 
pieces  of  her  luncheon  without  uncovering  it. 
Finding  she  could  not,  she  gave  up,  and  tied  the 
string  about  the  paper  again,  sitting  quietly  with 
her  hands  in  her  lap.  It  was  this  child's  first 
week  out  of  school.  Her  father  was  now  in  the 
hospital  for  the  third  month.  There  were  five 
children,  of  which  this  girl  was  the  eldest.  All 
the  money  saved  by  this  skillful  mechanic  and  his 
thrifty  wife  was  gone,  and  this  girl  had  to  go  to 
work.  One  can  imagine  faintly  her  feelings  as 
she  looked  at  the  crowded  doorways  and  knew 
that  the  whispered  comments  included  her.  The 
less  refined,  though  more  independent,  girls  sat 
with  flaming  cheeks,  and  holding  papers  over  their 
lunches,  ate  them  and  drank  the  tea. 

The  first  week  represented  the  life  of  that  lunch 
club.  The  girls  went  back  to  the  curb  and  the  side- 


DAWNING  CONSCIOUSNESS     133 

walk  and  stoops  as  lunch  rooms.  Here,  at  least,  no 
personally  conducted  parties  came  to  view  them. 
If  any  one  looked  at  them  and  they  objected,  they 
were  on  terms  of  equality,  and  at  once  notified  the 
offenders  of  their  offence.  To  the  credit  of  the 
people  who  used  that  street,  few  stopped  to  look 
at  the  girls. 

It  would  have  surprised  those  very  good  people 
to  have  known  the  opinion  those  crude,  unedu- 
cated girls  had  of  them.  A  day  or  two  later, 
standing  with  a  group  of  girls  who  had  not  been 
present,  with  a  half  dozen  of  the  men  who  worked 
in  the  factory,  as  spectators,  the  leader  of  the  girls 
described  the  scene,  caricaturing  the  "church 
gang,"  as  she  called  them,  and  some  of  the  girls 
who  had  been  distressed  by  their  presence.  The 
group  shrieked  with  laughter;  yet  there  was  an 

unpleasant  note  in  it.     " them !    That's  what 

they  always  do.  Stay  away  from  them  after 
this,"  was  the  comment  and  advice  of  one  of  the 
men.  "You  bet!"  responded  the  girl  actor,  as 
she  curveted  down  toward  the  factory  in  response 
to  the  whistle  calling  them  back  to  their  work. 

If  the  years  as  they  passed  did  not  clearly  re- 
veal that  the  Church  that  holds  the  poor  is  one 
over  which  men  of  the  highest  intellectual  and  so- 
cial training  are  placed  in  charge,  the  mistakes  of 
the  present  would  be  extenuated.     Such  churches 


134    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

do  exist.  Men  of  strong,  vivid  spiritual  percep- 
tion have  erected  and  maintained  bulwarks  of 
righteousness  in  neighborhoods  where  the  envi- 
ronment, the  civic  order  is  degrading.  They  have 
done  this  by  conducting  all  the  departments  of 
their  work  with  the  view  of  developing  the  gifts 
of  the  people  to  whom  they  are  ministering.  The 
choir  is  the  boys  and  girls  trained  by  the  best 
teachers  they  can  secure.  The  Sunday-school 
teachers  are  the  working  boys,  girls,  men  and  wo- 
men who  are  instructed  by  the  pastor  for  their 
Sunday-school  work.  The  officers  of  the  church 
are  the  men  of  the  neighborhood.  The  people  are 
married  and  buried  from  the  church ;  the  children 
are  baptized  in  it.  The  preaching  is  teaching  that 
salvation  is  of  time,  as  well  as  of  eternity.  The 
sins  of  the  people  are  made  visible.  The  pulpit 
holds  the  mirror  up  to  nature.  It  is  a  pillar  of 
cloud  by  day  and  of  fire  by  night,  leading  them 
into  the  promised  land,  made  so  by  their  own  civic 
honesty,  their  own  personal  character. 

These  men  do  not  have  to  make  reports ;  to  bow 
before  a  board  of  trustees.  They  do  not  have  to 
suppress  or  expand  to  meet  the  ideas  of  theorists. 
A  few  men  give  them  the  financial  support  they 
need,  and  let  them,  like  men,  stand  before  God 
and  their  own  souls  responsible  for  what  they  do 
for  the  people  whom,  when  Christ  was  on  earth, 
He  chose  for  His  friends — the  poor. 


WHEKE   THE    PEOPLE    SHARE. 


CHAPTER  V. 

working-girls'  clubs. 

Twenty-five  or  thirty  years  ago  in  New  York 
the  question  of  the  wisdom,  if  not  the  necessity,  of 
moving  the  downtown  churches  uptown  began  to 
agitate  the  pastors  and  church  leaders.  The  con- 
gregations, or  part  of  the  congregations,  who  had 
contributed  most  liberally  to  the  support  of  the 
Church  were  beginning  to  move  uptown,  crowded 
out  by  business  and  the  incoming  foreign  element 
which  settles  near  the  shipping  and  factory  dis- 
tricts. The  new-comers  did  not  support  the 
churches,  especially  the  Protestant,  not  even  by 
attendance.  It  was  natural  that  the  churches 
should  follow  their  congregations.  Some  sold 
their  buildings  to  the  sects  that  came  with  the  for- 
eigners ;  some  made  a  brave  effort  to  maintain  a 
church  for  the  people ;  some  became  missions,  dis- 
tributing stations  to  the  poor  people  who  had  set- 
tled in  the  now  overcrowded  houses  that  for- 
merly were  the  homes  of  one  family.  The  change 
in  the  downtown  communities  was  so  rapid  that 
no  one  could  understand  how  to  deal  with  the  new 
element.    The  Church  had  to  spend  years  in  learn- 


136     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

ing  how  to  adapt  its  methods  to  the  needs  of  the 
new  peoples  who  settled  by  hundreds  where  scores 
had  been.  Not  only  was  this  feature  bewildering 
in  itself,  but  the  people  spoke  an  unknown  tongue, 
were  foreign  in  thought  and  sentiment;  were  so- 
cial, rather  than  religious. 

The  saloon  far  outstripped  the  Church  in  the 
ease  with  which  it  adapted  itself  to  the  new  ele- 
ment. The  Church  encountered  not  merely  the 
new  people  degraded,  but  an  environment  that  in 
itself  was  a  tremendous  obstacle  to  decent  living. 
The  Church  shortly  discovered  an  entirely  un- 
looked-for evil,  insidious,  demoralizing — the  po- 
litical corruption  of  voters.  The  Church  to  the 
smallest  degree  only  in  recent  times  has  come  into 
the  larger  conception  of  its  function  as  a  teacher 
of  good  citizenship,  a  link  between  the  voter  and 
the  ballot-box,  preaching  the  duty  of  the  exercise 
of  the  franchise  governed  by  conscience.  It  took 
the  moral  degradation  of  the  city  to  rouse  the 
churches  to  activity  as  redemptive  civic  powers. 

The  corrupting  influence  of  corrupt  politicians 
was  evidenced  in  the  conditions  that  developed  in 
sections  of  the  city  left  to  their  control.  As  the 
years  went  on  and  the  men  of  conscience  and  in- 
telligence became  more  absorbed  in  business  and 
profession,  more  given  to  money-making,  because 
of  increasing  social  demands,  the  city  became,  in 


WORKING-GIRLS'  CLUBS       137 

the  minds  not  only  of  these  politicians,  but  of  the 
voters  they  trained,  a  mine  to  be  worked  for  per- 
sonal gain.  Ignorance  contributed  to  the  rapid 
degeneracy  of  the  people  in  the  old  home  sections 
of  New  York. 

The  saloon  became  very  early  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  tenement-house  sections  the  only  so- 
cial center.  The  result  was  an  increasing  of  the 
drink  habit  and  the  establishment  of  political 
headquarters  in  saloons.  Often  the  politician  in 
embryo  was  the  saloon-keeper,  often  the  barten- 
der. The  social  side  of  life  thirty  years  ago  was 
not  a  subject  for  church  consideration  and  study. 

The  Church  ministering  to  a  people  having 
standards  of  social  life  established  by  the  churches, 
the  outgrowth  of  its  teachings  and  creeds,  can  ig- 
nore questions  that  the  Church  ministering,  or  try- 
ing to  minister,  to  a  people  poverty-stricken,  over- 
worked, living  lives  barren  of  any  pleasures  but 
those  of  the  senses,  in  an  environment  that  of  it- 
self would  be  a  deteriorating  influence,  must  meet 
and  answer. 

The  Church  downtown  discovered  it  must  work 
seven  days  in  the  week ;  that  its  office,  its  func- 
tion was  secular,  as  well  as  religious ;  that  its  Sun- 
day work  was  but  one-seventh  of  its  work,  and 
that  the  six-sevenths  must  minister  to  that  one. 
The  Church  must  go  out  into  the  highways  and 


138     LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

hedges,  to  use  a  misplaced  metaphor  for  a  city 
street,  and  win  the  people.  This  evolution  of 
conception  marks  a  spiritual  Renaissance. 

Industrial  training  was  introduced  by  the 
churches,  the  natural  result  of  discovering  the 
ignorance  of  the  women  of  household  arts.  Far 
more  valuable  than  the  skill  imparted  to  the  chil- 
dren gathered  in  these  classes  was  the  contact  with 
the  earnest,  refined  women  and  young  girls  who 
were  the  teachers  in  the  now  established  mission 
churches.  The  revelation  was  mutual.  If  the 
tenement-house  child  gained  new  ideas  of  cleanli- 
ness, of  order,  of  neatness,  of  dexterity,  of  man- 
ners, the  uptown  teacher  also  gained  knowledge 
of  which  she  stood  quite  as  much  in  need.  When 
a  panting,  shining-faced  child  came  to  sewing 
school  half  to  three-quarters  of  an  hour  late  be- 
cause she  scrubbed  the  halls  and  stairs  of  a  three- 
story  tenement  house  to  help  her  mother,  the 
housekeeper,  who  paid  the  whole  or  part  of  the 
rent  for  the  family  by  this  service,  the  uptown 
woman  of  leisure  gained  a  new  view  of  life  and  its 
responsibilities.  When  the  mission  worker  who 
was  giving  time  and  strength  and  knowledge  as 
the  expression  of  her  faith  and  conscience,  found 
children  scarcely  more  than  babies  working  far  be- 
yond their  strength  in  the  service  of  their  fami- 
lies, the  uptown  worker  gained  a  new  conception 


WORKING-GIRLS'  CLUBS       139 

of  sacrifice,  of  poverty,  and,  what  was  far  more 
important,  a  new  conception  of  the  causes  of  igno- 
rance. The  uptown  woman  of  leisure  saw  that 
often  children  were  sacrificed  to  greed ;  forced  to 
become  wage-earners  by  parents  anxious  to  in- 
crease their  bank  accounts. 

As  time  went  on,  they  saw  that,  whether  poverty 
or  greed  was  responsible  for  the  sacrifice  of  the 
children,  the  protection  of  the  children  was  the 
safeguard  of  the  State,  of  the  nation.  There  came 
from  this,  by  the  process  of  evolution,  the  factory 
laws  for  the  protection  of  women  and  children; 
the  compulsory  school  law.  In  these  latter  days 
this  last  has  been  made  ridiculous  by  the  fail- 
ure of  the  municipality  to  provide  school  accom- 
modations for  the  children  of  school  age,  especial- 
ly the  children  under  fourteen  living  in  the  over- 
crowded sections. 

The  church  workers  in  the  tenement-house  sec- 
tions were  able  to  find  means  to  meet  some  of  the 
evils  of  oppression,  of  poverty,  ot  ignorance. 
They  had  concrete  facts  to  present  to  a  semi-indif- 
ferent public ;  but  when  the  social  side  of  the  peo- 
ple in  the  tenements  became  a  problem,  especially 
the  social  life  of  the  young  people,  the  remedies 
did  not  present  themselves.  The  legislation  pro- 
posed and  executed  was  restrictive,  not  recreative. 
It  was  not  the  function  of  the  State  or  the  Church 


i4o    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

to  provide  social  opportunities  for  uneducated, 
overworked  young  people. 

The  older  girls  in  the  Sunday-school  classes 
presented  not  only  all  the  problems  of  the 
little  children,  but  the  larger  one  of  social  oppor- 
tunity. The  homes  were  too  small,  too  over- 
crowded to  give  social  opportunity  to  the  family. 
Besides,  there  was  that  saddest  of  all  features  too 
often  found  in  the  home  of  the  working  girls — 
the  absence  of  all  sense  of  personal  responsibility 
on  the  part  of  parents  for  the  social  life  of  the  chil- 
dren, girls  and  boys.  The  children  in  all  but  the 
exceptional  home  were  free  to  choose  friends,  free 
to  go  and  come  as  suited  them.  Home  was  a  place 
in  which  to  eat  and  to  sleep ;  a  place  of  shelter ;  a 
place  often  entered  only  when  there  was  no  place 
to  go  out  of  working  hours. 

The  problem  of  providing  social  opportunity 
faced  the  downtown  churches.  In  the  very  nature 
of  things  the  social  opportunities  the  Church  could 
offer  must  be  limited ;  must  be  of  the  nature  that 
appealed  to  the  more  quiet,  the  phlegmatic,  the 
element  that  presented  the  least  factors  in  the  so- 
cial problem.  The  parish  house,  the  church  house 
did  not  exist.  All  the  amusements  offered  the 
people  must  be  in  a  building  consecrated  to  re- 
ligious life  and  service.     It  was  a  serious  question 


WORKING-GIRLS'  CLUBS       141 

how  far  the  Church  was  justified  in  introducing 
the  purely  social. 

It  was  natural  that  the  young  women  brought 
into  touch  with  the  young  working  girls  in  the 
Sunday-school  should  apprehend  the  restrictions 
that  life  in  a  tenement  imposed  on  a  working  girl. 
Everything  in  this  life  tended  to  make  her  gre- 
garious. She  was  born  into  a  house  probably 
overcrowded  before  she  came  into  it ;  she  slept, 
ate,  lived  with  crowds.  The  street,  her  only  play- 
ground, was  teeming  with  children  like  herself. 
When  she  worked,  she  rubbed  elbows  with  the 
workers  on  each  side  of  her.  She  went  and  came 
from  her  work  one  of  a  group.  The  working  girl 
lived  free,  and  pleasure  she  would  have. 

The  girl  of  wealth  and  leisure  working  in  the 
mission  Sunday-school,  by  her  own  youth  and  nat- 
ural inclinations,  could  appreciate  this  side  of  the 
working-girl's  nature,  and  with  the  same  clearness 
of  vision  see  the  limitations  imposed  on  the 
Church  in  trying  to  meet  the  social  needs  of  the 
people  for  whom  it  primarily  existed. 

Visiting  the  homes  of  their  girl  pupils,  the  Sun- 
day-school teachers  discovered  the  limitations  of 
the  homes.  Between  the  homes  as  they  existed 
and  the  churches  as  they  must  exist,  the  social  cen- 
ter for  the  working  girl  must  be  created   that 


142    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

would  meet  her  social  needs.  The  streets  were 
the  working- girl's  reception-room,  drawing-room, 
living-room,  where  she  received  her  most  intimate 
friends;  where  mutual  entertainment  was  pro- 
vided in  ways  that  made  no  drafts  on  purse  or  in- 
ventiveness. Halls  were  open  for  dancing,  where 
her  presence  was  so  desirable  that  she  was  admit- 
ted free  or  at  half  the  price  demanded  of  her 
brother.  Excursion  grounds  with  dancing  plat- 
forms were  then  popular  within  the  city  limits. 
The  immorality  of  the  present  temptations  that 
make  perilous  the  way  of  the  working  girl  in 
1 90 1  were  almost  wholly  unknown  twenty  years 
ago. 

The  work  the  earnest-hearted  women  interest- 
ed in  the  working-girl's  life  faced  was  how  to  en- 
large her  social  opportunities  in  connection  with 
educational  opportunities  that  would  meet  her 
peculiar  need,  and  which  she  would  accept.  New 
methods  of  intercourse,  new  places  of  meeting 
must  be  found. 

Every  organization  that  has  developed  in  these 
latter  days  for  bettering  the  condition  of  the  peo- 
ple has  its  root  in  the  doctrines  of  the  churches; 
workers  and  money  come  from  the  people  who 
receive  their  impulse  from  the  teachings  of  Christ. 
These  organizations  are  as  truly  as  the  churches 
the  expression  of  brotherly  love ;  the  positive  dec- 


WORKING-GIRLS'  CLUBS       143 

laration  of  the  consciousness  that  no  man  liveth 
to  himself. 

To  Miss  Grace  H.  Dodge  the  women  of  this 
country  owe  a  great  debt.  She,  from  the  stand- 
point of  a  Church  worker,  devoted  and  faithful, 
saw  that  outside  of  the  Church,  but  governed  by 
all  that  the  Church  believed  and  taught,  the  nat- 
ural outcome  of  both,  a  social  center  for  working 
girls  must  be  created.  This  center  must  be  in- 
dependent of  any  other  organization.  It  must  be 
at  once  a  natural  expression  of  the  working-girls' 
standards.  It  must  be  flexible,  as  well  as  pro- 
gressive, during  every  period  of  evolution  in  each 
group;  it  must  keep  in  touch  with  the  least  pro- 
gressive mentally,  the  most  progressive  socially. 

A  place  must  be  created  where  recreation  was 
possible;  where  classes  to  meet  the  educational 
wants  of  every  member  could  be  established. 
Above  all,  a  place  must  be  made  where  wealth  and 
poverty,  education  and  ignorance,  could  meet  on 
the  common  level  of  mutual  helpfulness. 

A  conference  with  a  group  of  working  girls 
but  strengthened  Miss  Dodge's  conviction  that 
this  social  center  would  not  only  give  to  the  work- 
ing girls  the  social  opportunity  that  New  York 
lacked,  but  it  would  give  to  the  woman  of  wealth 
and  leisure  the  opportunity  to  meet  the  people 
whom  she  must  know  if  she  would  use  her  time, 


i44    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

her  money,  her  education  wisely  in  the  interest 
of  social  development. 

With  Miss  Dodge  as  president,  the  first  work- 
ing-girls' club  was  organized.  It  marked  a  new 
epoch.  It  made  the  opportunity  that  had  never 
existed — the  working  of  rich  and  poor  to  secure 
the  same  end.  This  country  reaps  the  benefit  of 
this  first  step  in  altruism  based  on  the  highest 
Christian  and  democratic  doctrines. 

The  working-girls'  club  has  from  that  time  been 
a  positive  factor  in  the  social  development  of 
working  women,  not  only  of  New  York,  but  the 
whole  country.  It  has  enabled  the  students  of 
economics  and  sociology  to  get  at  facts  that  have 
revolutionized  theories.  The  working-girls'  club 
taught  the  working  girls  themselves  the  causes  of 
their  economic  disadvantages. 

Hardly  was  the  first  club  formed  when  the 
practical  results  inseparable  from  this  new  com- 
bination of  interests  and  sympathies  met  the  ap- 
proval of  all  interested  in  the  problem  of  the  work- 
ing-girl's life.  Everywhere  clubs  began  to  form. 
The  idea  has  been  adapted  and  adopted  by  the 
churches.  Working-girls'  clubs  of  all  degrees  of 
development,  under  many  kinds  of  constitutions, 
managed  and  mismanaged,  are  to  be  found  north, 
east,  south  and  west. 

The  question  of  support  was  one  of  primary 


WORKING-GIRLS'  CLUBS       145 

importance.  Miss  Dodge  had  studied  this  side 
of  the  question  thoroughly,  and  from  the  first  it 
was  decided  that  dues  must  be  paid  by  the  mem- 
bers. As  new  clubs  were  formed,  this  question  of 
dues  was  met  differently.  Usually  the  wages  of 
the  majority  of  each  group  of  girls  forming  a  club 
decided  the  amount  of  dues,  and  naturally  the 
dues  varied  in  the  clubs.  In  some  clubs  the  dues 
were  five  cents  per  month ;  in  others,  five  cents  per 
week ;  in  some  the  dues  were  twenty-five  cents  per 
month.  Even  this  amount  could  not  meet  the  ex- 
penses of  a  club  conducted  to  elevate  the  standards 
of  the  members  by  the  environment,  as  well  as  the 
social  and  educational  opportunities  provided. 
The  financial  managements  of  the  clubs  differ 
greatly,  and  always  have.  Strenuous  effort  has 
always  been  made  in  some  clubs  to  make  them 
self-supporting;  they  seem  almost  to  live  for  that 
purpose.  Entertainments,  sub-letting  of  rooms, 
fairs,  every  means  is  resorted  to  to  accomplish  this 
end.  Naturally  the  members  of  such  clubs  de- 
velop a  good  deal  of  business  ability;  sometimes 
at  the  expense  of  qualities  that  in  a  woman  count 
for  more  in  life. 

The  highest  form  of  club  life  developed  among 
working  girls  represents,  to  the  working  girl,  her 
college.  She  realizes,  as  does  the  rich  girl  or  boy 
who  enters  college,  that  what  she  pays  does  not, 


146     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

cannot,  pay  for  what  she  receives.  This  concep- 
tion of  the  financial  side  of  the  working-girls'  club 
management  controls  in  the  clubs,  with  few  ex- 
ceptions, to-day. 

The  club  must  give  every  educational  and  so- 
cial opportunity  that  will  meet  the  needs  of  the 
members.  As  the  college  meets  the  demands  of 
its  students  in  the  electives  it  offers,  so  must 
the  working-girls'  club.  As  the  college  student 
must  meet  the  financial  obligations  he  assumes 
when  he  enters  college,  so  must  the  member  of  the 
working-girls'  club  keep  her  financial  engagement. 
As  the  college  makes  it  possible  for  the  worthy 
student  to  complete  his  course  of  study  after  finan- 
cial disaster  makes  it  impossible  for  him  to  meet 
his  financial  obligations,  so  must  the  working  girl 
who  has  contributed  to  the  life  of  the  club,  or  who 
has  shown  her  desire  to  profit  by  what  it  offers,  be 
kept  in  good  and  regular  standing  when  financial 
disaster  makes  personal  independence  impossi- 
ble. In  short,  the  working-girls'  clubs  that  are 
conducted  on  the  broader  lines,  and  with  the  most 
comprehensive  knowledge  of  our  social  condi- 
tions, are  in  management  and  purpose  a  college 
for  working  girls.  The  idea  of  self-support  may 
have  been  strained  for  a  time,  but  it  was  an  error 
in  the  right  direction,  and  led  to  the  truer  con- 


WORKING-GIRLS'  CLUBS       T47 

ception  which  regulates  the  management  of  the 
best  clubs  to-day. 

It  was  curious,  is  curious,  the  attitude  of  mind 
with  which  some  girls  approach  the  club  idea. 
There  comes  to  mind  now  the  effort  to  form  a 
second  club  in  the  rooms  of  a  club  of  several  years' 
standing.  The  need  of  the  second  club  had  grown 
out  of  the  refusal  of  the  girls  who  earned  from  five 
to  nine  dollars  a  week  in  various  employments  to 
associate  with  a  number  of  girls  working  in  a  to- 
bacco factory,  and  earning  on  an  average  three 
dollars  and  a  half  per  week.  The  last-named  were 
rough  in  speech  and  manner,  and  far  from  stylish 
in  dress — the  standard  of  the  elder  club.  The  in- 
troduction of  the  girls  from  the  tobacco  factory  to 
the  club  was  the  result  of  the  sentiment  of  one  of 
the  members  of  the  club,  a  bright,  wealthy,  healthy 
girl,  a  great  favorite  with  the  other  club  girls. 
She  had  wanted  for  two  years  to  work  with 
girls  less  prosperous  than  the  girls  in  the  club  of 
which  she  was  a  member. 

A  large  tobacco  factory  not  far  from  where  the 
club  met  attracted  her  attention,  and  she  invited 
the  girls  working  there  to  join  the  club.  Twenty- 
two  came  to  the  club- room.  Mentally  they  were 
in  a  state  of  nature.  This  group  of  girls  repre- 
sented just  what  intermittent  school  attendance, 
uninterrupted  freedom  of  the  streets,  from  the 


148     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

time  they  could  walk  alone  to  the  present  time, 
might  be  expected  to  produce.  They  were  stran- 
gers even  to  the  degree  of  social  opportunities  the 
members  of  the  club  represented. 

Their  standards  of  manners  and  morals  were 
what  the  neighborhood  in  which  they  grew  up 
made  them.  Their  homes  were  in  one  of  the 
worse  sections  of  the  city,  in  which  an  institution 
wholly  charitable  pretending  to  do  educational 
work  had  been,  not  what  was  intended,  an  elevat- 
ing influence,  but  the  reverse  for  the  children  of 
this  section.  When  these  girls  went  to  school  they 
alternated  between  this  and  the  public  school,  so 
that  it  was  impossible  to  compel  their  attendance 
at  the  public  school  through  officers  of  the  law. 
The  neighborhood  in  which  most  of  these  girls 
had  been  born  and  grew  up  was  a  section  as  re- 
mote from  the  life  of  the  city  of  which  it  was  a 
part  as  though  it  were  in  another  country. 
Through  it  ran  a  thoroughfare  in  which  were 
stores  that  could  supply  every  want.  It  was 
another  political  unit  where  one  man  ruled,  whose 
approval  meant  work  in  the  city  department,  in 
the  street  railroads,  on  the  docks ;  even  in  the  fac- 
tories, of  which  there  were  many  in  the  section. 
The  streets  were  in  a  shocking  condition,  unpaved 
and  dirty,  and  no  one  objected  because  no  one 
cared. 


WORKING-GIRLS*  CLUBS       149 

The  tenement  houses  were  formerly  the  resi- 
dences of  the  prosperous.  These  houses  were 
badly  kept,  old  and  unsanitary.  Liquor  saloons 
were  on  two,  and  sometimes  three,  corners  of  the 
streets  through  the  whole  section.  Beer-sodden 
women  were  so  common  a  sight  that  the  women 
who  did  not  bear  evidence  of  over-indulgence  were 
remarkable.  These  girls  had  never  known  per- 
sonal ownership,  even  in  a  bureau  drawer ;  not  so 
much  as  the  right  to  one  peg  on  which  to  hang 
their  clothes  to  the  exclusion  of  others.  It  is 
doubtful  if  they  ever  owned  a  change  of  under- 
clothing that  another  child  of  the  family  could  not 
claim. 

Naturally,  the  girls  took  possession  of  the  club- 
rooms.  Quite  as  naturally  the  older  members  re- 
sented it.  It  was  seen  at  once  that  an  attempt  to 
have  the  new  girls  elected  as  club  members  would 
be  equivalent  to  ejection.  They  were  tolerated, 
but  not  tolerable  to  the  older  members.  At  the 
end  of  four  weeks  the  two  sets  of  girls  lined  up 
on  opposite  sides  of  the  room,  utterly  refusing  to 
intermingle.  This  passive  attitude  changed  to 
the  aggressive,  which  approached  open  hostilities 
so  closely  as  to  make  the  danger  line.  When  this 
point  was  reached  it  was  decided  to  form  the  new 
girls  into  a  club  by  themselves.  The  rooms  were 
not  used  every  evening  by  the  club  for  which  they 


150    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

were  hired.     Sub-letting  would  give  more  money 
for  educational  purposes. 

As  this  attempt  at  club-making  is  one  of  the 
worst,  and  for  that  reason  one  of  the  failures,  it 
would  be  well  to  describe  it : 

The  directors  hired  rooms  each  fall,  in  Septem- 
ber or  October,  until  the  first  of  May  follow- 
ing. As  one  recalls  this  club,  it  presents  one  of 
the  best  evidences  of  the  barrenness  of  the  work- 
ing-girl's life  in  New  York.  Every  fall  for 
years  a  few  notes  written  to  the  leading  girls,  and 
a  group  of  twenty  or  twenty-five  working  girls, 
would  gather  and  start  anew  on  this  club  life. 
This  method  of  conducting  a  club  made  it  seem 
useless  to  spend  money  in  making  the  rooms  at- 
tractive. They  were  usually  on  the  second  floor 
of  a  house  occupied  by  two  or  more  families ;  the 
halls  dark  and  bare;  the  rooms  rarely  clean  as  to 
walls  and  ceiling,  barren  of  ornament.  The  floors 
were  bare,  and  not  infrequently  stood  sadly  in 
need  of  scrubbing.  They  were  lighted  by  smok- 
ing kerosene  lamps,  which  but  added  to  their  un- 
attractiveness.  Frequently  the  caretaker  started 
the  fires  a  few  minutes  before  the  time  for  the 
girls  to  appear.  Yet  the  girls  came  and  remained 
winter  after  winter. 

The  new  girls  accepted  the  same  conditions,  and 
assembled  one  stormy  night  to  form  their  own 


WORKING-GIRLS'  CLUBS       151 

club,  with  several  additions  to  their  number  of 
their  own  selection,  among  the  rest  their  fore- 
woman. The  leaders  of  the  club  realized  that 
she  might  be  an  element  of  strength;  she  might 
be  the  source  of  infinite  trouble.  She  had  been 
young  many  years  before,  a  fact  of  which  she  was 
wholly  unconscious.  She  was  dressed  in  what  at 
the  time  was  called  laquer — a  warm  shade  of  tan 
— silk,  trimmed  with  bead  trimming ;  a  lace  collar, 
and  a  most  remarkable  hat  completed  the  kind  of 
a  costume  that  always  is  discouraging  to  a  true 
club  worker. 

Naturally  the  forewoman  was  the  spokeswo- 
man for  the  girls.  It  was  useless  to  attempt  to 
draw  out  a  personal  opinion  from  the  girls,  all  of 
whom  worked  under  her.  Knowing  the  wages 
of  the  girls,  it  had  been  decided  that  five  cents 
per  month  should  be  the  dues,  leaving  the  girls  a 
margin  from  which  they  might  pay  for  classes. 
The  indignation  of  the  forewoman  at  the  sugges- 
tion of  five  cents  a  month  dues  would  have  been 
amusing  if  it  had  not  revealed  her  utter  blindness 
to  the  poverty  of  the  girls.  Being  determined  that 
no  girl  there  should  be  kept  out  of  her  club  by  pov- 
erty, the  suggestion  was  made  to  the  forewoman 
that  as  her  wages  equalled  the  wages  of  any  three 
of  the  girls,  and  as  she  chose  to  join  a  club  where 
the  others  received  such  small  wages,  she  might 


152    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

pay  the  same  dues,  and  each  month  make  a  dona- 
tion to  the  club  to  meet  its  current  expenses.  She 
could  see  the  dues  alone  would  not  do  that. 

The  forewoman,  after  a  few  minutes,  consented 
to  accept  the  condition..  The  worried  look  left 
the  faces  of  the  young  girls,  and  they  beamed  on 
the  gracious  lady  who  consented  to  waive  her  own 
dignity  in  their  behalf.  Perhaps  it  is  well  to  state 
here  that  the  forewoman  never  made  any  dona- 
tion, and  that  she  would  have  been  dropped  from 
the  club  for  non-payment  of  dues  but  for  the 
knowledge  that  such  a  step  would  mean  that  she 
would  make  the  girls  leave  the  club.  She  was 
by  them  considered  a  good  forewoman,  kind,  and 
ready  to  help  a  girl  if  a  girl  tried  to  earn  more 
money.  She  had  to  be  consulted  in  everything 
attempted  for  the  girls.  Fortunately  she  was  so 
afraid  of  revealing  her  ignorance,  which  was 
dense  outside  of  her  work,  that  she  always  sup- 
ported the  workers  directing  the  club  affairs. 

This  woman  was  taken  ill.  The  director  of  the 
club  found  that  she  boarded  with  a  family  consist- 
ing of  a  father,  mother  and  three  children,  living 
in  three  rooms.  She  was  found  lying  on  a  mattress 
on  the  floor,  destitute  of  sheets  or  pillow-cases. 
She  did  not  own  a  nightdress.  The  tan  silk  dress 
with  the  bead  trimming  hung  on  a  nail  over  her 
head,  surmounted  by  the  gorgeous  hat.      She  was 


WORKING-GIRLS'  CLUBS       153 

very  ill  and  penniless ;  yet  the  poor  about  her  were 
devoted  to  her  and  considered  her  most  remark- 
able. 

Several  years  ago  both  of  the  clubs  referred  to 
consolidated  with  another  club  whose  directors 
kept  the  club-rooms  open  throughout  the  entire 
year.  After  the  consolidation  a  house  of  three 
stories  in  a  good  neighborhood  was  rented,  and 
devoted  entirely  to  the  use  of  the  club.  Only 
those  who  have  watched  the  development  of  these 
girls  could  appreciate  what  the  club  has  done  for 
them.  Cooking  and  sewing  classes,  lectures  on 
city  government,  talks  on  books,  on  art  and  na- 
ture; the  weekly  contact  with  women  of  culture 
and  refinement,  who  carry  the  conviction  that  club 
work  is  a  pleasure,  that  service  for  others  is  a  de- 
light, has  borne  fruit,  and  the  girls  in  turn  give 
their  service  to  those  whom  they  may  help) — often- 
est  the  members  of  their  own  club. 

The  evolution  of  character  through  the  contact 
with  others  is,  after  all,  the  highest  attainment 
of  the  working-girls'  club  movement.  It  brought 
the  working  girl  into  entirely  new  relations.  Con- 
stantly she  was  forced  to  see  the  folly  of  placing 
emphasis  on  the  wrong  thing. 

A  nice-looking  girl,  very  well  dressed,  joined 
a  working-girls'  club.  Her  face  indicated  char- 
acter and  intelligence.      She  was  elected  to  office, 


154     LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

but  never  re-elected,   far  she  was  ignorant — too 

ignorant  to  perform  the  smallest  duties  in  club 
life.  She  came  ever}'  week  on  the  social  evening. 
always  the  best-dressed  girl  in  the  club.  As  she 
grew  more  familiar  she  grew  snobbish.  She  lived 
in  a  very  poor  neighborhood,  where  her  clothes 
must  have  been  even  more  out  of  place  than  in 
the  club-room.  She  held  a  position  which  required 
special  manual  skill,  and  in  her  own  field  was 
an  expert.  Unfortunately,  she  obtained  an  influ- 
ence over  certain  girls  and  headed  a  clique.  Every 
week  she  became  a  greater  problem.  One  night 
a  rather  rough,  but  frank  and  intelligent,  girl  was 
introduced  as  a  candidate  for  membership  by 
a  member  who  worked  in  the  same  shop.  The 
girl  who  was  the  club  problem  had  been  away  two 
weeks  working  overtime,  and  did  not  come  to  the 
club  until  after  the  new  girl  had  been  elected  a 
member.  The  amazement  of  both  as  they  faced 
each  other  as  members  of  the  same  club  aroused 
ques:  to    their    social    and    family    back- 

ed.     All  that  appeared  was  that  they  were 

The  first  reception  to  mothers  was  given  by  the 
club  about  this  time.  When  the  night  of  the  re- 
ception came,  the  ''problem"  came  in  a  new  dress 
having  a  jetted  front.  Her  appearance  amazed 
the  members,  and  made  it  clear  that  the  "prob- 


WORKING-GIRLS'  CLUBS       155 

lem"  must  be  solved  or  eliminated.  The  new 
member  appeared  with  two  mothers,  both  plainly 
dressed,  one  not  warmly  enough.  This  one  was 
timid,  reluctant  to  enter  the  room,  and  but  for 
the  urging  of  the  new  member  and  her  mother 
she  would  have  gone  home.  She  refused  to  re- 
move the  shabby  shawl  she  wore,  and  adjusted 
again  and  again  the  straw  hat,  on  which  a  narrow 
black  ribbon  was  pinned.  The  "problem"  stood 
in  front  of  the  mantel,  surrounded  by  an  admir- 
ing crowd.  The  two  mothers  and  the  new  mem- 
ber walked  into  the  room.  It  was  a  dramatic 
moment.  The  new  member,  with  an  expression 
of  deep  scorn,  said :  "You  forgot  to  ask  your 
mother;  we  brought  her."  The  "problem"  grew 
white  and  then  crimson.  The  girls  fell  back  and 
gazed  spellbound  at  the  shabby,  uncomfortable, 
timid  mother.  The  scales  fell  from  their  eyes. 
The  "problem,"  so  far  as  influence  in  the  club  was 
concerned,  ceased  to  be  a  problem.  A  girl  who 
would  sacrifice  her  mother's  comfort,  who  used 
her  simply  to  keep  house  for  her,  could  not  hold 
any  position  in  a  working-girls'  club. 

The  story  crept  out.  The  "problem"  felt  the 
loss  of  prestige.  Clothes  had  satisfied  her  ambi- 
tion; she  had  through  them  enjoyed  a  sense  of 
power.  The  experience  of  that  evening  doubt- 
less opened  her  eyes  to  things  in  life  to  which  she 


156     LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

had  been  blind.  Again  and  again  she  was  seen 
during  that  evening  reception  to  look  at  her  moth- 
er searchingly.  She  seemed  to  see  her  in  a  new 
light,  and  by  its  reflection,  herself.  The  mother 
was  afraid  of  her  and  showed  it.  The  daughter, 
it  was  evident,  discovered  that  fear  for  the  first 
time  and  sought  to  overcome  it.  It  was  deter- 
mined to  hold  fast  to  the  "problem"  and  help  her 
solve  herself.  Great  progress  was  made.  Her 
dress  no  longer  astonished;  her  mother  came  to 
the  club  receptions  comfortably  and  suitably 
dressed.  Out  of  consideration  for  her  mother, 
she  remained  in  the  wretched  tenement,  because 
the  mother  and  the  house  had  grown  old  to- 
gether; but  the  rooms  were  now  furnished.  The 
new  member  had  supplanted  the  "problem"  as  an 
influence  in  the  club.  The  "problem"  became  en- 
gaged, and  the  club  lost  her.  The  man  was  a  store- 
keeper in  a  town  not  far  from  New  York.  The 
girl  married  and  forgot  to  take  her  mother  to  her 
new  home.  The  mother  remained  a  club  legacy 
for  two  years,  when  she  died.  The  daughter  sent 
the  money  to  bury  her,  but  did  not  come  to  the 
funeral.  Her  husband  is  successful,  and  she  is  a 
social  power  in  the  Church  to-day;  a  devoted 
mother  and  wife,  strange  as  it  may  seem. 

The  centering  of  experience,  the  revelations  of 
character  inevitable  in  a  working-girls'  club,  are 


WORKING-GIRLS'  CLUBS       157 

the  largest  factors  in  educating  the  members.  As 
the  years -go  on,  emphasis  is  laid  on  the  right 
things.  Harmony  results,  because  a  sense  of  pro- 
portion is  gained.  Girls  who  have  had  the  bene- 
fit of  a  public  school  education  that  enables  them 
to  fill  positions  that  prove  they  have  had  such  op- 
portunities, often  in  the  beginning  of  their  club 
life  will  manifest  a  feeling  of  superiority  over  the 
girl  who  works  with  her  hands.  But  eventually 
some  experience  will  reveal  to  them  the  pettiness 
of  their  estimate,  and  a  readjustment  of  values  is 
made. 

A  girl,  long  a  member  of  a  club,  had  won  the 
love  and  admiration  of  all  connected  with  it.  She 
earned  wages  far  above  the  average  of  working 
girls,  a  fact  well  understood  in  the  club.  She  was 
always  an  officer,  and  a  dependable  power  in  the 
management  of  the  club.  The  girls  were  to  give 
a  play.  Xo  amount  of  urging  won  this  girl's  con- 
sent to  take  part  in  the  play.  A  girl  who  had 
taken  a  part  dropped  out,  and  some  one  must  take 
her  place  at  once.  Now  the  girls  refused  to  take 
"no"  for  an  answer,  and  the  favorite  went  down 
in  the  basement  with  the  others  who  were  in  the 
play.  Each  had  her  book  to  read  her  part,  as  a 
help  to  the  girl  pressed  into  the  service.  When  it 
came  her  turn  to  read  there  was  absolute  silence. 
The  girl  sat  white  and  trembling,  trying  to  speak. 


158     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

At  last  jerkingly  the  words  came:  "I  cannot 
read.  I  never  learned  beyond  the  small  words. 
I  had  to  take  care  of  the  children  when  mother 
went  to  work,  while  my  father  was  sick.  I  went 
to  work  as  soon  as  I  could  and  helped  keep  them 
in  school.  They  all  read  and  write.  I  cannot. 
Now  you  know  why  I  did  not  say  'yes.'  ' 

There  was  silence  for  the  space  of  several  min- 
utes. No  one  could  speak.  Then  the  baby  of 
the  club,  the  one  everybody  petted,  whose  very 
naughtiness  was  attractive,  ran  around  the  table, 
threw  her  arms  around  the  speaker's  neck,  saying : 
"You're  worth  all  the  rest  of  us  put  together. 
We'll  never  give  the  old  play.  We  all  hate  it." 
This  followed  by  a  half  dozen  kisses  placed  wher- 
ever she  could  touch  the  crimson,  tear-stained  face 
of  the  girl  through  her  hands. 

Education  had  been  put  in  its  right  place  in  the 
field  of  accomplishment.  When  the  entertain- 
ment was  given,  the  girl  who  could  not  read  was 
made  manager,  because  no  one  could  do  so  well. 

For  more  than  twenty  years  the  working-girls' 
club  has  been  a  power  in  thousands  of  lives.  The 
process  of  character  building  through  accretion 
and  elimination  has  been  going  on.  Through  its 
influence  the  club  method  has  been  applied  under 
every  guise,  but  perhaps  it  is  just  to  say  that  it 
has  been  at  its  best  where  its  formation  and  man- 


WORKING-GIRLS'  CLUBS       159 

agement  has  been  purely  democratic  and  absolute- 
ly non-sectarian.  In  the  nature  of  things,  in  af- 
filiation with  any  organization,  it  must  take  its 
place  as  the  fraction  of  a  unit,  and  be  in  its  man- 
agement considered  always  as  only  a  part  of  a 
whole  to  whose  success  it  owes  an  allegiance. 

Now  the  working-girls'  clubs  have  their  State 
organizations,  even  their  national  organization. 
The  Pan-American  Exposition  brought  working 
girls  to  the  number  of  five  hundred  together  in 
a  convention  to  consider  the  questions  vital  to 
club  life  and  management.  Can  any  one  doubt 
the  effect  of  this  journey  into  the  world,  the 
first  that  hundreds  of  these  girls  had  ever  made? 
Of  the  readjustment  of  ideas,  the  revelation 
of  beauty,  the  new  birth  of  values,  because 
of  the  vision  of  a  larger  world  lying  beyond  fac- 
tory, workshop,  office,  school-room?  For  it  has 
come  to  this :  that  the  professional  as  well  as  the 
manual  worker  finds  inspiration  in  the  working- 
girls'  club. 

As  the  years  went  on,  a  new  problem  grew  out 
of  the  working-girls'  club  movement.  The  mem- 
bers married,  but  they  were  not  willing  to  lose 
the  social  affiliations  of  girlhood;  they  were  un- 
willing often,  reluctant  always,  to  sever  club  re- 
lationship. On  the  other  hand,  the  members  felt 
that  a  married  woman  should  remain  home  in  the 


160    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

evening  with  her  husband.  Often  the  married 
member  would  come  carrying  her  baby,  for  the 
club  represented  the  mother's  social  relations. 
The  next  step  was  natural,  the  forming  of  a  club 
of  the  married  members  to  meet  in  the  afternoon. 
The  first  working-girls'  club,  of  which  Miss 
Dodge  is  still  president,  formed,  as  the  Domestic 
Circle,  a  club  of  married  members. 

The  A.  O.  V.  Matrons  at  the  Cottage  Settle- 
ment are  the  married  members  of  the  A.  O.  V. 
Club,  formed  when  the  matrons  were  little  girls. 
Other  working-girls'  clubs  have  contributed  to 
the  membership  of  other  married  women's  clubs. 

Naturally,  the  subjects  discussed  in  these  clubs 
are  those  bearing  on  housekeeping  and  the  train- 
ing of  children.  The  training  received  in  the 
clubs  enables  the  married  members  to  conduct 
their  business  with  dignity  and  dispatch.  They 
are  trained  to  club  life,  and  have  learned  how  to 
avoid  unnecessary  friction. 

Some  clubs  plan  a  winter's  work  ahead.  These 
programmes  show  a  broadening  of  interest  and 
sympathy,  not  only  in  the  technical  affairs,  the 
home  and  the  care  of  children,  but  the  larger  af- 
fairs outside  of  the  home  that  makes  its  environ- 
ment. It  must  be  that  the  girls  who  have  been 
club  members  make  more  companionable  wives 
than  the  women  who  have  not  had  their  opportuni- 


WORKING-GIRLS'  CLUBS       161 

ties.  The  children  are  always  present  at  the  meet- 
ings of  the  mothers.  Various  devices  and  meth- 
ods are  employed  to  entertain  and  interest  them. 
What  the  mothers'  club  means  to  the  little  ones 
was  unconsciously  revealed  very  recently  in  the 

statement  of  a  young  mother:     " is  always 

home  from  school  five  minutes  earlier  club  day. 
She  runs  home  to  get  ready." 

The  working-girls'  club  has  in  the  process  of 
its  evolution  become  a  family  institution. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

A  SOCIAL  EXPERIMENT. 

The  Residents  of  the  College  Settlement  learned 
in  the  first  year  of  their  work  in  Rivington  Street 
to  sympathize  deeply  with  the  married  women,  the 
mothers  in  the  region. 

Mothers,  after  nights  spent  in  overcrowded, 
unventilated  bedrooms  caring  for  nursing  babies, 
began  getting  breakfast  at  five  o'clock  in  the 
morning.  Husband  and  children  of  every  age 
must  be  wakened  for  work  or  for  school,  often 
irritable  because  of  the  unhygienic  conditions  un- 
der which  they  had  slept.  Friction  and  quarrel- 
ing is  to  be  expected  when  there  is  one  wash- 
basin for  the  use  of  the  whole  family ;  one  sink  for 
the  morning  bath  of  the  family  when  there  is 
running  water  in  the  rooms.  Breakfast  of  bread 
and  strong  coffee,  perhaps  with  the  family  wait- 
ing turns  because  only  three  sides  of  the  table 
are  available,  as  there  is  not  room  to  pull  the  table 
out  from  the  wall  to  make  the  four  sides  useful. 
Floor  space  costs  in  the  tenements. 

Friction,  adjustment  and  hurry  do  not  tend  to 
develop  a  serene  spirit  in  the  house-mother  whose 


A  SOCIAL  EXPERIMENT       163 

office  is  purely  executive.  How  much  less  in  the 
house-mother  whose  hands  must  do  all  the  work 
of  the  home?  When  the  working  and  school- 
going  members  of  the  family  are  cared  for  and 
have  gone  their  several  ways,  there  is  left  to  the 
house-mother  almost  always  a  baby  and  another 
child  too  young  to  go  to  school,  to  care  for  and 
amuse.  In  addition  there  is  the  round  of  work — 
washing,  ironing,  mending,  making,  cooking — 
all  to  be  done  under  limitations  of  space  and  con- 
veniences; often  with  the  handicap  of  ignorance. 
Whatever  the  advantage  of  self-made  money- 
makers, the  self-made  housekeeper,  taught  only 
by  experience,  not  only  pays  dearly  for  her  edu- 
cation, but  is  more  than  apt  to  be  satisfied  with 
her  self-taught  accomplishments,  thus  increasing 
her  disadvantages  in  the  use  of  time  and  money. 

Even  with  a  small  family  the  house-mother  with 
the  usual  round  of  work  would  not  have  many  mo- 
ments of  leisure.  When  it  is  a  large  family,  with 
all  the  disadvantages  of  the  tenement-house  home, 
the  days  are  not  long  enough  for  the  work  to  be 
done.  It  crowds  the  hours,  and  accumulates  until 
often  discouragement  and  nervous  exhaustion  fol- 
low. If  the  mother  have  a  conscience,  she  wars 
with  herself,  battling  against  conditions  that  she 
feels  but  cannot  understand  nor  overcome. 

Three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  in  the  year 


1 64    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

the  Residents  found  these  mothers  who  needed 
the  change  of  pleasure  that  made  no  demands  on 
purses.  Even  good  wages  did  not  permit  these 
families  money  to  buy  pleasure  and  recreation. 
Mothers,  good  mothers,  grew  old  before  their 
time.  They  often  grew  careless  of  their  personal 
appearance,  and  by  this  risked  their  influence  in 
their  homes,  separation  from  their  children,  alert 
and  often  overconscious  on  the  subject  of  dress. 
Then  there  were  semi-apathetic  mothers  be- 
cause of  discouragement;  the  mothers  who 
drifted,  never  having  an  aim  in  life  or  an  ideal ; 
then  the  mothers  who  long  ago  ceased  to  make 
any  struggle  against  environment,  every  year 
becoming  more  inert ;  the  mothers,  now  grand- 
mothers, who  were  remembered  only  in  time  of 
need  by  their  children.  The  Residents  saw 
the  need  of  the  mothers  of  all  types.  How  could 
the  apathetic  be  awakened,  the  discouraged  stim- 
ulated, the  overworked  rested  and  cheered  ?  Hun- 
dreds, thousands  of  mothers  were  losing  the 
best  things  of  life  because  for  them  the  activities 
that  increase  interest  and  sympathies  could  not 
be  brought  into  their  lives.  Their  environment 
made  social  opportunities  in  their  own  homes  im- 
possible. Husband  and  children,  through  con- 
tact with  life  in  shop,  factory,  store,  street  and 
school,  enlarged  their  interest  every  day;  while  the 


A  SOCIAL  EXPERIMENT      165 

wife  and  mother  came  to  a  mental  standstill,  often 
losing  interest  in  everything  outside  of  her  home ; 
often  failing  through  lack  of  knowledge  and  dis- 
couragement in  making  that  a  place  of  rest  and 
refreshing. 

The  Settlement  was  the  bright  spot  in  the  lives 
of  hundreds  of  young  people  and  children.  The 
mothers  who  could  be  stimulated  must  be  reached 
and  held  in  a  center  where  pleasure  would  be  the 
controlling  element  and  education  an  incident. 
There  were  mothers  who  had  lost  all  desire  for  so- 
cial life.  It  was  found  difficult  to  arouse  in  them 
even  a  momentary  interest  in  the  thought  of  seeing 
new  things,  new  people.  The  grind  of  life  had 
blunted  all  social  instincts.  There  were  women 
who  on  the  social  side  of  their  natures  were  dead ; 
could  not  be  roused  by  any  thought  outside  of  the 
routine  of  their  lives.  Interest  enough  to  do  for 
their  families  what  required  the  least  effort  of 
mind  and  body  was  all  that  was  left.  The  hope  in 
these  homes  was  the  children.  To  them  the  Set- 
tlement must  give  inspiration  and  ideals ;  the  home 
would  never  give  either. 

In  the  second  year  of  the  College  Settlement's 
activity  a  persistent  effort  was  made  to  reach  the 
mothers,  especially  the  mothers  of  the  more  alert 
and  active  boys  and  girls  affiliated  with  the  Set- 
tlement,   in   clubs   and   classes.     These   mothers 


166    LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

came,  but  never  the  same  group  twice.  The  small- 
est obstacle  would  prevent  the  very  women  who 
most  needed  social  opportunity  from  accepting  it. 
When  they  needed  help,  they  came  to  the  Settle- 
ment ;  they  were  most  cordial  hostesses  when  the 
Residents  called  ;  delighted  in  the  opportunities  the 
Settlement  made  for  their  children;  but  the  habit 
of  staying  indoors,  out  of  touch  with  any  life  but 
that  of  the  tenement-house  halls,  was  a  fixed  habit 
most  difficult  to  dislodge. 

Some  of  the  workers  who  were  interested  in 
this  question  were  led  to  conclude  that  it  was  only 
the  exceptional  woman  in  the  tenements  who  re- 
tained the  capacity  to  plan  her  work  to  secure  a 
specified  hour  or  two  of  freedom  in  a  whole  week. 
The  life  imposed  on  the  tenement-house  mother 
does  not  make  time  an  element  in  adjustment  of 
her  day,  still  less  of  her  week.  The  breakfast 
over,  the  day  unfolds  itself,  and  the  mother  is  free 
to  meet  it.  Only  in  the  exceptional  home  is  life 
considered  in  its  relation  to  the  time  of  day.  One 
thing  was  clear:  that  in  the  homes  of  the  better 
paid  wage-earners  the  mothers  did  not  get  their 
share  of  life's  brightness.  A  College  Settlement 
worker,  enthusiastically  supported  by  the  Head 
Resident,  determined  to  secure  it  for  some  of 
them.  Failures  would  not  discourage  the  worker, 
for  every  effort  would  be  considered  an  experi- 


A  SOCIAL  EXPERIMENT       167 

ment  until  success  was  attained.  The  club  idea 
had  proved  successful  for  the  children  and  young 
people;  it  had  for  mothers  of  larger  opportunities 
elsewhere  in  the  social  world;  it  might  for  these 
mothers.    At  least,  it  could  be  tried. 

Twenty-two  calls  were  made  on  the  mothers  of 
children  and  young  people  then  coming  to  the  Set- 
tlement, asking  them  to  the  Settlement  for  a 
certain  afternoon  in  the  following  week.  All  ac- 
cepted the  invitation ;  ten  came.  The  women  who 
responded  were  told  of  the  plan  to  start  a  club  to 
meet  once  a  week.  There  would  be  music,  a  short 
talk  and  refreshments.  The  plan  seemed  to  please 
all  who  were  present,  and  it  was  agreed  to  meet 
the  following  week. 

At  once  a  problem  was  faced.  Some  of  the 
mothers  came  without  hats,  wearing  not  overclean 
aprons,  and  apparently  looking  upon  the  move- 
ment as  some  new  phase  of  almsgiving.  Others 
were  alert,  well-dressed,  comprehended  that  they 
must  contribute  their  share  in  money  and  interest 
or  the  effort  would  die  out.  The  children  of  these 
two  types  of  mothers  could  not  be  distinguished 
by  outward  signs.  American  public  school  life  and 
the  very  atmosphere  of  the  street  life  had  already 
begun  its  leveling-up  process  in  dress  and  inde- 
pendence. How  could  these  two  types  be  brought 
into  a  common  social  relation,  when  they  held 


168   lp:aven  in  a  great  city 

nothing  in  common  but  the  experience  of  living 
under  the  roof  with  many  ? 

It  was  decided  to  let  the  law  of  natural  selec- 
tion operate  freely.  The  club  was  an  experiment, 
and  it  must  not  start  with  preconceived  plans ;  its 
life  must  be  one  of  evolution.  The  next  week 
only  the  alert  women  appeared. 

The  club  was  formed,  a  president  elected,  and 
dues  placed  at  ten  cents  per  week.  This  the  pro- 
jectors tried  to  reduce,  but  the  members  insisted 
that  they  could  and  would  pay  it.  That  it  would 
cost  almost  that  to  pay  for  the  cake  and  coffee, 
and  they  could  help  somebody  if  there  was  any 
money  over.  The  club  was  limited  to  ten  mem- 
bers, and  filled  at  the  second  meeting.  It  enlarged 
to  fifteen  the  next  year.  In  its  fifth  year  it  num- 
bered forty-five. 

The  subject  of  the  first  formal  talk,  informally 
conducted,  as  its  subject  demanded,  was:  "How 
long  after  the  hair  is  out  of  curling-papers  is  it 
becoming?"  This,  of  course,  gave  the  oppor- 
tunity of  laying  stress  on  a  wife's  personal  ap- 
pearance; the  necessity  of  being  as  attractive  as 
possible  to  one's  own  husband  and  children.  That 
was,  is,  the  keynote  of  the  club,  its  creed,  its  re- 
ligion to-day,  when  mothers  and  married  daugh- 
ters are  members.  The  time  of  meeting  was  two 
o'clock,  that  the  mothers  might  be  at  home  in  time 


A  SOCIAL  EXPERIMENT       169 

to  get  supper  for  their  husbands  and  children. 
Babies  came  with  their  mothers,  and  children  in 
school  came  to  the  Settlement  instead  of  going 
home  after  school.  Many  of  the  little  girls  be- 
longed to  a  sewing  club  that  met  the  same  after- 
noon at  the  Settlement.  The  club,  named  in  the 
first  month  of  its  existence  "The  Woman's  Home 
Improvement  Club,"  celebrated  its  eleventh  anni- 
versary at  the  College  Settlement,  October,  1901. 
As  the  first  anniversary  approached,  the  mem- 
bers suggested  an  evening  meeting,  that  their  hus- 
bands might  come.  The  proposition  received  the 
most  enthusiastic  support  from  the  Settlement 
Residents.  Husbands,  all  the  children  who 
worked,  and  a  friend  of  each  member — if  mar- 
ried, her  husband — were  included  in  the  invita- 
tion. Dancing  and  music  occupied  the  evening. 
What  a  revelation!  Fathers  dancing  with  their 
own  daughters  for  the  first  time;  mothers  with 
their  sons;  daughters  and  sons  spellbound  at  the 
sight  of  their  mothers  and  fathers  dancing  to- 
gether! It  was  evident  that  the  club  was  a  fea- 
ture of  the  family  life.  The  husbands  and  grown 
children  knew  what  had  been  talked  about,  what 
had  been  done  at  the  meetings.  One  husband, 
watching  his  wife  dancing  with  their  son,  said  :  "I 
don't  know  how  you've  done  it,  but  this  club  has 
made  my  wife  young  again;  she's  as  young  as 


iyo    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

when  we  were  married."  This  wife  and  mother 
of  nine  children  at  the  club  one  afternoon  wished 
there  were  a  hundred  such  clubs.  "  'Tis  a  mistake 
to  just  stay  shut  up."  She  waited  a  minute,  and 
then  said :  "I  had  not  bought  a  hat  for  eighteen 
years  until  I  joined  this  club;  I  did  not  need  it;  I 
never  went  anywhere;  the  children  did  all  the  er- 
rands." 

This  was  the  very  type  of  mother  the  projectors 
of  the  club  hoped  to  reach.  The  first  evening  re- 
ception proved  such  a  success  that  it  was  decided 
to  hold  one  evening  reception  each  month  for  the 
family  and  friends  of  the  members.  Thanksgiv- 
ing and  Christmas  receptions  belonged  to  the  chil- 
dren. Apples,  nuts,  gingerbread,  cake  and  pea- 
nut brittle,  with  coffee,  are  the  refreshments  for 
Thanksgiving  evening;  new  milk  for  the  children. 
The  games  are  Blind  Man's  Buff,  Going  to 
Jerusalem,  with  the  Virginia  Reel  as  an  alternate, 
because  the  little  children  can  dance  it.  "Amer- 
ica" and  "Home,  Sweet  Home,"  sung  in  chorus, 
close  the  evening.  More  than  one  family  is  now 
represented  by  three  generations  on  these  even- 
ings. At  the  first  evening  reception  a  father  and 
son  of  twenty  years  stood  side  by  side.  When 
the  father  began  singing,  the  son  stopped  and 
looked  at  him  in  amazement.  This  changed  to 
one  of  enjoyment,  as  he  said  between  the  verses : 


A  SOCIAL  EXPERIMENT       171 

"Dad,  I  didn't  know  you  could  sing."  "I  haven't 
in  twenty  years,  I  guess,"  was  the  reply.  Both 
father  and  son  had  good  voices.  The  son  had 
made  the  discovery  that  he  had  a  voice,  at  the  Set- 
tlement, in  his  club.  He  edged  closer  to  his 
father ;  there  was  a  new  bond  of  sympathy.  The 
boy's  Christmas  present  from  his  father,  mother, 
brother  and  sisters  was  a  mandolin,  the  first  time 
a  combination  present  had  been  given.  It  was 
quite  natural  that  the  next  year  a  table  for  the 
new  parlor  should  be  the  gift  of  the  children  to  the 
parents. 

An  incident  occurring  in  the  third  year  after  the 
club  was  organized  is,  perhaps,  as  perfect  an  illus- 
tration of  the  lack  of  social  opportunity  in  a  tene- 
ment-house home  as  can  be  given. 

One  of  the  most  faithful  and  interested  of  the 
members  was  a  woman  about  fifty-seven  when 
she  joined  the  club.  She  was  slow  to  respond  to 
the  club  idea;  to  the  right  of  personal  judgment 
outside  her  own  affairs.  Her  responses  to  a  ques- 
tion that  involved  an  expression  of  opinion  was 
usually:  "It  don't  make  no  difference  to  me." 
After  a  time  she  grasped  the  idea  that  she  was  one 
of  many,  but  had  equal  rights  with  all  the 
members  in  deciding  questions  relating  to  the 
club,  and  she  began  assuming  responsibilities ;  ex- 
pressing her  views.      In  the  third  year  she  came 


172    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

to  the  president,  and  with  every  evidence  of  wish- 
ing to  disclose  a  secret,  said :  Next  week  Thurs- 
day is  my  birthday.  I  never  had  a  birthday  party 
in  my  life.  I've  always  wanted  one,  but  never 
had  the  room,  and  I  never  had  the  dishes.  Do 
you  believe  I  could  have  a  birthday  party  here 
next  week?" 

"Yes,  I'm  sure  you  could." 

"I  can't  do  much;  and  I  only  have  two  friends 
besides  the  club  that  I  want  to  have.  I  want  to 
pay  for  all  the  coffee  and  cake,  that  I  may  feel  that 
it's  my  party.  Just  my  two  daughters,  and  my 
two  friends,  and  my  grandchildren — four,  that's 
all.    I've  been  saving  the  money  for  a  year." 

One  night  early  in  the  next  week  the  bell  rang. 
A  working  man  stood  at  the  door.  He  handed  a 
five-dollar  bill  to  one  of  the  Residents,  saying: 
"My  wife,  she's  goin'  to  have  a  party  here  Thurs- 
day. I  want  you  to  give  her  a  good  time.  She's 
been  a  good  wife  to  me.  Don't  tell  her;  just 
spend  it  for  her ;"  and  the  man  disappeared  in  the 
darkness. 

It  was  decided  to  order  a  birthday  cake  and 
light  sixty  candles. 

The  day  came.  Every  member  brought  a  re- 
membrance. Radiantly,  tearfully  happy  stood  the 
hostess.  She  loved  music,  and  a  sweet,  gracious 
woman  whose  music  wins  the  most  cultured  sang 


A  SOCIAL  EXPERIMENT       173 

song  after  song.  Time  for  refreshments  came.  In 
the  front  parlor  a  club  of  little  girls  were  sewing. 
It  seemed  a  pity  that  they  should  not  see  the  cake 
and  the  candles  lighted.  They  were  told  that  the 
doors  would  open,  a  lady  was  having  her  first 
birthday  party,  and  it  would  be  kind  to  wish  her 
many  returns  of  the  day. 

The  cake  was  brought  in  with  the  sixty  candles 
burning,  and  placed  before  the  hostess,  a  gift  from 
her  husband.  "I  didn't  know,"  the  wife  kept 
whispering  under  her  breath  as  she  stood  beside  it 
at  the  table.  The  doors  rolled  slowly  backward, 
and  twenty  children  breathed  "Ah!"  Then  in  a 
piping  chorus,  "Wish  you  many  returns  of  the 
day."  A  moment  the  woman  stood  still.  Then 
turning  a  shining  face  on  all  about,  she  moved 
toward  the  children,  the  tears  falling  fast.  Rais- 
ing her  hands  and  face  heavenward,  she  said  sol- 
emnly: "O  God,  what  have  I  done  that  you 
should  be  so  good  to  me?"  The  volume  of  her 
life  was  opened. 

A  cake  with  a  few  shining  candles,  a  few 
friends  with  their  little  offerings,  and  the  wishes 
of  a  few  children,  and  to  one  woman  God  had 
reached  out  of  His  high  heaven  and  selected  her 
as  the  special  object  of  His  care  and  love. 

Not  all  of  the  five  dollars  had  been  used.  The 
hostess  was  asked  what  she  wanted  done  with  it. 


174    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

She  was  radiant.  "I'll  give  a  party  to  those  chil- 
dren what  said  that  sweet  thing  to  me."  Sug- 
gestions of  other  uses  were  cast  aside.  The  chil- 
dren must  have  a  party — ice  cream  and  cake. 
When  she  found  out  that  cake  and  ice  cream 
would  cost  more  than  the  money  in  hand,  she  an- 
nounced :  "I  will  wait  to  give  it.  In  a  month  I 
save  money  to  put  to  it."  She  made  all  her  own 
arrangements,  and  proved  a  hostess  of  resource 
and  tact. 

She  received  her  guests  most  cordially.  Per- 
haps the  most  wildly  exciting  hours  of  her  life 
were  when,  after  much  coaxing,  she  joined  in  the 
games  of  Drop  the  Handkerchief,  Blind  Man's 
Buff  and  Going  to  Jerusalem,  the  last  game  send- 
ing her  crimson  and  panting  into  a  chair  in  the 
corner,  with  the  children  crowding  about  her 
shrieking  with  laughter. 

Time  for  refreshments  found  her  anxious  and 
watchful.  The  members  of  the  club  had  fallen 
into  the  spirit  of  the  day,  and  nobody  was  grown 
up. 

An  incident  occurred  during  the  serving  of  re- 
freshments which  showed  the  educational  value 
of  a  story  written  for  pleasure,  not  education ;  at 
the  same  time  a  very  deep  compliment  to  the  book. 
''The  Birds'  Christmas  Carol"  was  a  favorite  book 
in  the  club.  It  had  been  read  twenty-seven  times  in 


A  SOCIAL  EXPERIMENT       175 

one  tenement  house  by  eleven  members  of  one 
family,  and  four  times  by  one  member,  who  said 
she  would  own  a  copy  whenever  she  could  spare 
the  money.  She  wanted  to  read  it  when  she  felt 
cross.  As  there  were  not  chairs  enough  for  all  at 
the  party,  some  of  the  children  sat  on  the  floor. 
The  little  daughter  of  the  mother  who  wanted  to 
own  'The  Birds'  Christmas  Carol"  sat  on  the 
floor  in  front  of  her  mother.  She  did  something 
while  eating  her  ice  cream  of  which  her  mother 
disapproved.  With  a  quick  glance  at  one  of  the 
workers  who  stood  near  her,  the  mother  said  :  "If 
I  had  been  as  wise  as  Mrs.  Ruggles,  she  would 
not  have  done  that."  Mrs.  Ruggles  was  a  thor- 
oughly appreciated  character.  Her  struggles  to 
equip  her  children  were  perfectly  understood,  as 
were  her  ambitions  for  them.  The  hostess  of  the 
day  was  as  disappointed  as  the  youngest  child 
when  the  lighting  of  the  gas  told  that  the  day  was 
done.  She  was  the  last  to  leave,  saying :  "I  never 
was  so  happy  in  my  life.  It  has  been  beautiful. 
All  my  life  I  wanted  a  birthday  party.  Now  I 
have  two;"  and  she  turned  a  radiant  face  to  say 
"Good-night"  as  she  went  down  the  stoop  into  the 
gathering  darkness. 

The  weeks  went  by.  The  club  had  tickets  to 
go  to  Glen  Island,  through  the  generosity  of  Mr. 
Starin.     In  August  another  member  had  a  birth- 


176    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

day,  and  confided  the  secret  to  the  giver  of  the 
birthday  party,  saying,  "I  wanted  to  give  a  birth- 
day party  as  you  did.  I  never  had  one  in  my  life ; 
but  I  could  not  get  money  enough.  I  tried  hard 
since  yours."  In  September  the  elder  member 
confided  this  conversation  to  the  president  of  the 
club,  saying,  "Now  we  will  give  her  a  surprise. 
She  shall  have  the  party.  I  have  talked  with  every 
member.  But  we  will  not  each  buy  her  a  present  ; 
we  put  our  money  together  and  buy  her  a  dress." 
The  president  doubted  the  wisdom  of  this,  and 
suggested  a  dozen  other  gifts.  "No,  we  give  a 
dress.  She  does  not  have  as  nice  a  dress  as  other 
members.  It  is  not  right  that  one  member  of  a 
club  should  not  dress  as  good  as  every  other  mem- 
ber. Why  not  she  take  that  dress?  She  know 
we  love  her,  and  we  give  her  this  because  we 
want  her  to  look  as  good  as  anybody;  she  is  so 
pretty." 

The  dress  was  bought  and  given  by  the  oldest 
member  of  the  club,  who  in  her  speech  announced 
her  views  on  dress,  and  the  need  of  one  member 
looking  as  well-dressed  as  any  other  member ;  that 
if  one  could  not  have  things,  then  the  others 
must  share  with  her ;  that  was  being  a  true  mem- 
ber. The  dress  was  received  in  the  spirit  in  which 
it  was  given.  When  it  was  found  that  it  could 
not  be  made  by  the  receiver  in  time  for  the  next 


A  SOCIAL  EXPERIMENT      177 

reception  because  she  had  so  much  work,  it  was 
cut  and  made  by  five  members  of  the  club.  The 
wisdom  of  putting  money  together  to  buy  one 
present  was  learned,  and  from  that  time  on  the 
custom  has  been  to  make  joint  gifts  when  gifts 
are  given.  This  is  done  in  families,  greatly  re- 
ducing the  valueless  things  that  were  formerly 
bought  when  only  a  little  money,  a  few  cents  per- 
haps, could  be  spent  by  each  one. 

About  the  time  this  club  was  established  the 
kindergarten  had  been  added  to  the  vocabulary 
of  philanthropists.  The  kindergarten  existed  as 
part  of  the  secular  work  of  many  of  the  churches, 
and  individuals  here  and  there  supported  kinder- 
gartens. It  was  generally  conceded  that  the 
mothers  of  the  children  did  not  appreciate  the 
work  the  kindergarten  was  doing  for  their  chil- 
dren ;  that  too  often  they  felt  that  permitting  them 
to  go  was  conferring  a  favor  on  the  kindergart- 
ners  or  those  who  had  asked  for  their  children's 
attendance.  The  Residents  and  workers  at  the 
Settlement  did  not  believe  that  this  was  a  healthy 
attitude  of  mind.  They  believed  it  was  responsi- 
ble for  the  irregular  attendance  of  many  of  the 
children,  as  well  as  the  lack  of  punctuality.  There 
was  no  kindergarten  in  connection  with  the  Set- 
tlement, nor  room  for  one,  but  one  was  greatly 
needed.    Much  as  it  was  needed,  it  must  not  come 


178    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

until  the  mothers  wanted  it  and  were  willing  to 
work  for  it. 

Miss  Brooks  was  then  at  the  head  of  the  Kin- 
dergarten Training  School  in  connection  with  the 
Teachers'  College.  She  was  consulted.  The  re- 
sult was  that  the  members  of  the  Woman's  Home 
Improvement  Club  became  on  several  afternoons 
members  of  a  kindergarten.  They  used  the  ma- 
terials, took  part  in  the  games  directed  by  Miss 
Brooks  and  the  members  of  her  training  class. 
The  names  of  the  material  used,  the  things  made, 
the  stories,  the  games,  the  songs,  became  a  part 
of  the  vocabulary  of  the  mothers.  Some  of  the 
material  was  bought  and  taken  home  to  entertain 
the  children.  The  natural  result  followed.  "If 
only  we  could  have  a  kindergarten  for  our  chil- 
dren !" 

It  was  suggested  that  if  seventy  children  could 
be  found  near  enough  to  the  DeWitt  Memorial, 
where  a  room  for  the  kindergarten  was  available, 
that  perhaps  the  kindergarten  would  be  established 
there.  Over  one  hundred  calls  were  made  by  the 
nine  members  of  this  club,  which  resulted  in  se- 
curing the  promised  attendance  of  seventy  chil- 
dren. The  Lowell  Kindergarten  was  then  opened 
at  the  DeWitt  Memorial  by  the  New  York  Kin- 
dergarten Association  as  a  result  of  this  effort. 
The  difficulties  the  mothers  put  in  the  way  of  good 


A  SOCIAL  EXPERIMENT       179 

work  in  the  kindergarten  was  explained  to  the 
members  of  the  club,  who  agreed  to  call  on  moth- 
ers whose  children  did  not  come  to  the  kindergar- 
ten in  time,  or  were  irregular  in  attendance.  It 
was  most  interesting  to  watch  the  growth  of  pub- 
lic sentiment  in  favor  of  regular  and  punctual  at- 
tendance, not  only  at  the  kindergarten,  but  at 
school.  If  the  kindergarten  child  reported  John- 
ny Jones,  who  was  a  neighbor's  child,  as  absent, 
the  elder  brother  or  visitor  after  school  was  sent 
to  find  out  if  Johnny  Jones  were  ill.  It  became  a 
badge  of  good  motherhood  to  have  the  child  in 
the  kindergarten  on  time.  Before  this,  through 
talks  by  doctors  and  nurses,  the  relation  between 
health  and  cleanliness  had  been  discovered.  Clean- 
liness was  imposed  on  their  own  children,  and  ex- 
acted from  other  mothers  of  kindergarten  chil- 
dren. 

The  influx  of  Hebrews,  toward  whom  the  mem- 
bers of  this  club  had  a  deep  race  prejudice,  drove 
them  out  of  this  neighborhood.  Before  seven 
years  had  passed  but  four  of  the  members  were 
residents  of  this  district.  But  a  change  of  resi- 
dence did  not  change  their  belief  in  the  value  of 
the  kindergarten.  Wherever  they  have  gone  they 
have  sought  it  for  their  young  children,  who  have 
found  always  intelligent  and  sympathetic  listeners 
in  their  mothers  to  all  the  events  and  incidents  in 


180    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

their  kindergarten  world.  One  mother  learned 
accompaniments  to  songs,  and  the  children  sing 
kindergarten  songs  at  the  club  entertainments, 
even  those  in  the  grammar  grade  join. 

As  time  went  on,  the  conviction  grew  stronger 
that  the  real  pressure  of  poverty  or  lack  of  money, 
among  the  self-respecting  independent  poor  came 
not  on  the  physical  nature  but  the  mental  and 
emotional.  The  pressure  was  incessant.  There 
never  was  a  time  when  there  was  money  to  buy 
pleasure.  Months,  years  went  by  without  life 
offering  the  opportunity  for  enlarging  the  mental 
horizon  of  thousands  of  capable,  receptive,  de- 
voted mothers.  To  the  children  the  Church  en- 
tertainments were  opportunities ;  clubs  and  sewing 
schools  were  doing  their  share,  but  the  mothers 
were  only  onlookers.  There  was  no  active  part 
for  them  except  in  the  world  of  work.  The 
churches  provided  religious  opportunity  and  so- 
cial opportunity,  regulated  by  the  Church  environ- 
ment. Hundreds  were  not  attracted,  and  often 
one  sympathized  with  their  rejection  of  this  kind 
of  social  opportunity,  tinged  too  frequently  with 
patronage,  and  of  necessity,  narrow  in  its  scope. 

Early  in  the  history  of  this  club  the  love  of 
music  was  so  evident  that  it  was  decided  that  the 
members    should    hear    "The    Messiah."     That 


A  SOCIAL  EXPERIMENT       181 

would  be  the  Christmas  treat  that  year.  The  cost 
of  the  tickets  was  far  beyond  the  means  of  the 
members,  but  friends  made  the  purchase  of  the 
tickets  for  every  member  possible. 

Two  days  before  the  giving  of  the  Oratorio, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gerrit  Smith  came  to  the  Settlement 
and  gave  a  recital.  Handel's  picture  was  dis- 
played, the  story  of  his  life  told.  The  themes  of 
the  Oratorio  were  explained,  and  then  sung  by 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Smith.  A  new  world  was  opened. 
The  night  for  the  Oratorio  came.  The  journey 
so  far  uptown  was  into  a  land  wholly  unknown. 
Carnegie  Hall  was  a  revelation  of  another  world. 
Its  size  and  beauty,  the  audience,  all  a  revelation. 
From  the  opening  bar  to  the  close  of  the  Oratorio 
the  club  members  listened  entranced.  It  was  the 
enlarging  of  the  world  revealed  by  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Gerrit  Smith.  As  the  chorus  "Unto  us  a  child  is 
born,  Unto  us  a  son  is  given,"  closed,  every  one 
of  the  mothers  sat  with  shining  face  but  moist 
eyes.  A  new  message  had  come.  One  little 
mother,  whose  battle  so  bravely  fought  won  rev- 
erence for  her,  leaned  down  and  whispered :  "I'm 
so  glad  I  have  sons ;  I'm  so  glad.  I  think  I  know 
now  what  it  means."  The  echo  came  back  for 
weeks,  yes,  for  years.  One  member,  in  trying  to 
tell  her  husband,  said :  "I  saw  while  I  was  talking 


i8a    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

how  impossible  it  was  to  make  him  understand, 
so  I  said :  'J°hn>  you'll  never  know  till  you  get  to 
Heaven  what  I  heard  and  saw  to-night/  " 

The  result  justified  the  effort.  It  was  seen  that 
it  was  wise  to  have  the  best  of  everything  for  the 
members  of  the  club  in  the  way  of  entertainment. 
Musicians  have  given  most  generously  of  their 
time  and  talent.  Speakers  who  are  sought  for  in 
the  highest  intellectual  world  have  been  secured 
for  the  evening  receptions,  when  the  husbands  and 
working  children  and  friends  were  present.  The 
result  has  been  to  develop  just  at  the  level  where 
it  was  most  needed  standards  that  protect  the 
home  from  enjoyments  tinged  with  vulgarity,  and 
even  crudeness  is  now  detected  and  accepted 
grudgingly  or  with  apology. 

The  hard  times  of  1893-94  gave  a  new  oppor- 
tunity to  test  the  value  of  such  a  club.  The  stories 
of  suffering,  of  helplessness,  made  it  seem  wise  to 
control  money  to  be  expended  through  the  club 
members.  They  were  brought  into  contact  with 
families  who  never  before  were  reduced  to  the 
point  of  asking  charity.  About  four  hundred 
dollars  was  expended  under  the  direction  of  the 
members  of  this  club.  Work  tickets  were  bought 
and  given  to  men  and  women  whose  life  his- 
tory they  knew,  men  and  women  they  had  known 
for  years.     When  cases  of  strangers  were  brought 


A  SOCIAL  EXPERIMENT       183 

to  their  notice,  they  investigated  and  advised  as 
to  the  best  way  to  give  help.  To  prevent  eviction, 
payment  of  rent  was  the  first  effort  of  the  club 
members. 

The  education  they  received  was  invaluable. 
For  the  first  time  it  was  possible  for  them  to  help 
others  in  a  large  way;  they  saw  that  the  number 
they  could  help  depended  on  the  wisdom  shown  in 
expending  the  money  on  which  they  could  call. 
Their  indignation  knew  no  bounds  when  they 
found  they  had  been  deceived,  as  they  were  in  half 
a  dozen  cases  of  families  brought  to  their  atten- 
tion. One  case  caused  a  complete  revolution  in 
their  theory  that  if  people  suffered  it  was  because 
the  world  was  hard  with  them,  had  not  given 
them  a  chance.  One  woman,  a  widow,  was 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  club  early  in  the 
winter.  She  had  one  child,  and  they  had  not  had 
a  fire  in  weeks ;  had  no  outside  garments  to  go  on 
the  street,  because  they  had  pawned  them  for  food. 
They  had  eaten  nothing  but  bread  and  coffee 
for  seven  weeks.  Now  they  were  to  be  evicted 
from  the  one  room  they  had  occupied,  because  no 
rent  had  been  paid  for  two  months.  The  club  had 
decided  that  paying  back  rents  only  benefited 
landlords;  that,  having  so  little  money  and  so 
many  demands,  rent  in  advance  was  all  they  could 
pay.      They  voted  to  move  the  woman,  then  to 


1 84    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

find  work  for  her.  It  was  decided  that  she  must 
learn  to  operate  a  sewing  machine.  The  Charities' 
Organization  Society  made  that  possible.  After 
two  weeks'  trial,  it  was  found  that  the  woman 
could  not  learn.  Then  the  society  gave  her  a 
chance  to  learn  laundry  work,  and  for  two  weeks 
more  money  to  support  the  woman  and  child — 
cared  for  by  one  of  the  members  in  turn  while  the 
mother  was  away  from  home — was  given. 
Again  the  report  came  that  the  woman  would  not 
learn.  Then  the  members  decided  to  teach  her. 
This  individual  teaching,  with  what  the  society 
had  done,  seemed  to  make  an  impression.  It  was 
decided  that  the  woman  could  iron. 

When  this  stage  was  reached  the  fourteen-year- 
old  daughter  of  one  of  the  members  passed  on  her 
way  from  work  a  laundry.  At  the  door  a  sign 
hung,  "Hands  Wanted."  The  little  girl  went  in 
and  asked  about  wages.  The  man  at  the  desk 
laughed  at  her.  "It  made  me  mad.  I  just  looked 
at  him,"  drawing  herself  up  as  she  told  the  story. 
"I  said :  'I  do  not  want  the  work  for  myself,  but 
for  a  woman  our  club  is  trying  to  help ;  she's  poor, 
and  a  widow/  Then  the  man  looked  at  me,  and 
told  me  to  tell  the  woman  to  come.  I  told  him 
we'd  all  been  teaching  her."  The  use  of  the  plu- 
ral possessive  thrilled  the  heart  of  the  workers; 
the  club  was  a  family  possession.      The  woman 


A  SOCIAL  EXPERIMENT       185 

was  told  to  go  to  work  the  next  morning.  As  the 
little  girl  was  returning  from  work  the  next 
night,  she  stopped  at  the  laundry  to  ask  about  the 
woman;  to  walk  home  with  her,  if  she  were  go- 
ing home.  She  was  told  the  woman  had  not  ap- 
peared. Before  going  to  her  own  home,  the  child 
went  to  see  why  the  woman  had  not  gone  to  work. 
The  woman  had  overslept.  For  three  weeks  that 
little  girl  got  up  earlier  and  went  after  that  wo- 
man, delivering  her  at  the  laundry  as  though  she 
were  a  package.  It  was  decided  that  the  sacrifice 
was  too  much;  if  the  woman  was  not  willing  to 
keep  the  work  by  her  own  effort,  she  was  not 
worth  helping.  An  alarm  clock  was  bought  and 
given  her,  and  she  was  taught  how  to  wind  it. 
She  lost  the  place  before  the  end  of  the  first  week 
because  she  could  not  get  there  on  time. 

The  club  found  out  that  there  were  people 
it  was  impossible  to  help,  do  what  the  world 
would. 

This  little  girl  during  this  period  of  struggle 
with  this  woman  was  met  one  Sunday  afternoon. 
She  carried  a  doll  to  which  she  was  devoted,  and 
for  which  she  made  a  cloak  that  Sunday  morning. 
"Isn't  she  pretty?"  she  said,  holding  up  the  doll. 
"I  often  wish  I  could  see  her  when  I'm  working." 
What  a  combination  of  child  and  woman !  As  the 
years  have  passed,  this  little  girl  has  paid  the  pen- 


1 86     LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

alty  of  shop  life.  She  has  grown  hard,  aggressive, 
self-assertive,  untruthful.  If  only  her  environ- 
ment could  have  been  different,  she  would  have 
made  a  magnificent  woman.  The  world  of  strug- 
gle has  been  too  much  for  her ;  it  has  strangled  the 
spirit  of  helpfulness. 

The  lessons  of  that  winter  have  been  well 
learned.  Every  mother  in  the  club  wants  a  trade 
for  her  child;  something  learned  that  has  in  it 
wage-earning  promise  because  the  worker  has 
special  knowledge. 

The  time  came  when  it  was  possible  to  turn  the 
attention  of  these  mothers  to  the  administration 
of  those  city  departments  that  make  the  environ- 
ment of  their  homes.  The  streets  naturally 
claimed  first  attention.  They  learned  to  take  the 
numbers  of  the  street  sweepers  who  failed  to  do 
their  work;  to  take  the  numbers  of  the  carts  im- 
properly and  carelessly  filled,  and  report  them  at 
the  club  meeting.  Leaking  roofs,  broken  stair- 
ways, unlighted  halls,  contagious  diseases  were 
reported,  and  conditions  in  the  stores  and  facto- 
ries where  their  daughters  worked. 

The  criminality  of  concealing  dangers  that 
threatened  many  to  protect  one  was  compre- 
hended. The  club  motto  became  "A  helping  hand 
to  all." 

The  club  members  felt  that  it  was  possible  for 


A  SOCIAL  EXPERIMENT       187 

them  to  give  special  help  to  little  children.  In  a 
thousand  ways  the  women  in  the  house  of  many 
families  find  the  opportunity  to  help  children; 
often  through  the  children  they  helped  the  moth- 
ers. Sometimes  through  personal  influence  they 
secured  the  regular  attendance  of  children  at 
school;  sometimes  it  meant  calling  in  the  aid  of 
the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Chil- 
dren to  secure  the  rights  of  children,  to  protect 
them  from  evils  in  their  own  homes. 

One  day  a  wealthy  woman  who  had  lost  a  little 
girl  told  the  president  of  this  club  this  incident, 
which,  she  said,  changed  the  course  of  her  life. 
For  months  she  had  shut  out  the  world.  God  and 
man  were  cruel.  Nothing  interested  her;  life  was 
empty.  She  sat  by  the  window  in  her  home  one 
November  afternoon.  It  was  drizzling  and  blow- 
ing. A  little  girl  without  hat  or  coat  stood  shiv- 
ering and  crying  against  the  church  railing  oppo- 
site. As  she  watched  the  child  her  mind  reverted 
to  the  clothes  she  handled  so  constantly,  because 
they  had  been  worn  by  her  child.  She  sent  for 
the  little  stranger,  and  when  she  went  on  the  street 
again  she  was  warm,  tidy  and  comfortable.  Then 
came  the  thought,  "God  never  meant  a  woman 
should  be  a  mother  just  to  one  little  girl.  She 
must  be  a  mother  to  every  child  who  needs  her." 
From  that  day  this  woman  has  given  her  life  and 


188    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

service  to  children.  The  story  was  told  to  the 
club. 

One  of  the  members,  after  the  meeting  had  ad- 
journed and  while  the  refreshments  were  being 
served,  was  overheard  saying:  "Why,  certainly 
it  would  change  everything  if  every  woman  would 
live  in  that  way.  Think  how  many  times  you 
could  save  children,  how  many  times  you  could 
help  them,  if  you  were  their  mother  just  for  the 
time  they  needed  you — often  only  a  few  minutes." 

Months  after  a  member  reported:  "Well,  I 
don't  know  what  you'll  all  think  when  I  tell  you 
what  I  did  last  week.  I've  been  bothered  because 
such  a  nice-looking  little  girl  came  every  morning 
about  school  time  and  went  upstairs  in  the  house 
opposite.  She  carried  a  lunch-box  and  books.  I 
would  see  her  with  a  baby  at  the  window,  and  see 
her  in  the  morning  run  on  errands.  At  three 
o'clock  she  went  away  in  the  direction  from  which 
she  came.  That  child  is  playing  'hookey.'  That 
woman  is  to  blame,  I  said  to  myself.  One  morn- 
ing last  week  I  saw  the  child  go  to  the  corner  gro- 
cery.     I  went  after  her. 

"  'Where  you  live,  little  girl  ?'  I  asked.  She 
grew  red  and  hung  her  head,  and  tried  to  get  out 
of  the  store.  I  stand  in  front  of  her.  'No,  you 
must  not  be  afraid  of  me.  I  have  little  girls.  I 
love  all  little  girls.  Where  is  your  mother?  Child, 


AT    THE    SETTLEMENT — A    STORMY    DAY. 


A  SOCIAL  EXPERIMENT       189 

you  deceive  her.  She  thinks  you  are  in  school, 
and  you  play  "hookey."  '  The  child  ran  out  of 
the  store,  crying.  I  went  right  upstairs  after  her. 
I  knock.  The  woman  would  not  open  the  door. 
I  knock  louder,  then  she  come.  When  she  see  me, 
she  tried  to  close  the  door.  I  put  my  foot  in  the 
door  and  keep  it  open.  I  say,  'You  are  doing 
wrong.  I  belong  to  a  club  where  every  member 
is  to  be  a  mother  to  every  child  what  needs  her. 
If  that  little  girl  come  here  one  more  day,  I  follow 
her  home  and  tell  her  mother.  It  be  bad  for  you 
if  any  child  come  here  so  young  as  that  child.  It 
is  against  the  law  for  such  little  children  to  work. 
That  little  girl  is  playing  "hookey,"  and  you  make 
her.  You  do  that  any  more,  and  I  make  a  com- 
plaint against  you  to  the  Children's  Society. 
Good-morning;'  and  I  took  out  my  foot,  bowed 
and  went  downstairs.  When  I  got  home,  that  lit- 
tle girl  is  running  down  the  street  where  she 
comes  every  morning.  I  never  see  her  now,  and 
that  woman  do  her  own  errands  and  mind  her 
own  baby." 

The  members  applauded.  A  child  out  of  school 
is  a  child  to  be  looked  after.  It  has  been  con- 
cluded by  the  members  of  this  club  that  they  can 
do  their  best  missionary  work  in  the  houses  where 
they  live,  by  keeping  their  rooms  and  their  chil- 
dren in  the  best  possible  condition;  that  every 


i9o    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

home,  every  child  so  cared  for,  is  the  best  possible 
sermon  preached,  the  purpose  of  which  is  to  make 
life  better. 

The  League  for  Political  Education,  the  Wo- 
man's Auxiliary  of  the  Civil  Service  Reform  As- 
sociation, the  City  History  Club  have  sent 
speakers  to  the  club,  some  conducting  courses  of 
lectures.  Even  the  Assembly  District  work  un- 
dertaken by  the  League  for  Political  Education 
was  attempted  by  the  club,  but  did  not  succeed.  It 
could  hardly  be  expecterd  that  it  would. 

During  all  those  years  the  members  had  been 
trained  to  self-government.  All  questions  are  de- 
cided by  the  majority.  There  came  a  time  when 
the  majority  voted  to  leave  the  College  Settlement. 
It  was  deplored  by  the  projectors,  but  accepted. 
After  a  few  weeks  a  small  house  was  taken  a  cou- 
ple of  blocks  from  the  East  River.  The  house 
had  a  large  yard,  and  by  expending  a  small 
amount  of  money  was  made  very  attractive.  The 
attempt  was  made  to  have  the  members  of  the  club 
do  neighborhood  work.  A  very  short  trial  proved 
this  was  impracticable.  Two  things  were  re- 
vealed :  That  the  mother  of  a  working-mans  fam- 
ily has  neither  strength  nor  time  to  give  away; 
that  the  very  conditions  of  tenement-house  neigh- 
borhoods require  trained,  impersonal  workers. 
The  women  who  gave  time  to  the  club  work  in 


A  SOCIAL  EXPERIMENT      191 

the  neighborhood  neglected  their  homes  and  fam- 
ilies. The  few  members  who  tried  to  do  neigh- 
borhood work  in  the  house  used  every  advantage 
the  club-house  offered,  which  they  controlled, 
to  curry  favor,  to  revenge  slights,  real  or  fan- 
cied, to  themselves  or  their  children.  The  best 
mothers  made  no  attempt  to  do  any  neighborhood 
work.  The  house  became  a  social  center,  an  edu- 
cational center.  But  it  was  not  a  success  until 
paid  workers  were  put  in  charge  of  different  de- 
partments, with  a  very  few  volunteer  workers; 
and  the  most  faithful  of  these  were  women  of 
wealth. 

It  was  hoped  that  uptown  organizations  would 
establish  branches  of  their  work  in  this  house. 
Some  did  attempt  it,  but  it  failed  for  the  reason 
that  so  many  efforts  to  better  the  conditions  of 
the  tenement-house  dwellers  fail.  Women  lack- 
ing the  right  qualities  volunteered,  or  the  work 
was  important  when  other  things  did  not  inter- 
fere. Clubs  were  established  to  which  the  organ- 
izers came  when  it  was  convenient.  Again  and 
again  children  connected  with  clubs  waited  until 
darkness  came,  but  no  "dear  lady"  whom  they 
trusted  appeared.  In  another  case,  numbers  were 
the  standard  of  success,  and  scores  were  crowded 
in  where  units  should  have  been.  All  this  forced 
the  employment  of  paid  workers,  and  centered  the 


192     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

responsibility  on  one  until  the  burden  was  too 
great  to  be  borne. 

Added  to  this,  the  principle  of  self-government 
had  given  a  one-sided  development  to  some  of  the 
members,  and  friction  would  develop  when  large 
questions  were  to  be  decided,  an  aggressive  mi- 
nority combating  a  conservative  and  less  demon- 
strative majority. 

The  reform  campaign  of  1897  began.  The  pic- 
ture of  the  candidate  of  the  Citizens'  Union  hung 
in  the  window.  The  Citizens'  Union  used  the 
house  and  yard  for  its  lectures.  When  the  cam- 
paign was  ended,  the  friction  developed  to  the  un- 
bearable point,  and  it  seemed,  in  view  of  the  dis- 
sension, best  to  disband  the  club.  The  club  voted 
to  keep  together  and  return  to  the  College  Settle- 
ment, if  the  privilege. could  be  secured.  This  was 
generously  given,  and  the  club  unanimously  voted 
to  return,  pledging  the  members  to  give  all  the  aid 
possible  to  the  Settlement  work.  Since  1898  the 
club  has  again  been  a  part  of  the  work  at  the  Set- 
tlement. 

For  six  years  this  club  has  had  a  country  club- 
house — a  large  house,  easy  of  access,  in  New  Jer- 
sey, admirably  adapted  to  the  purposes  of  the  club. 
The  house  is  surrounded  by  lawns  and  an  apple 
orchard.  Two  kitchens  make  it  possible  for  two 
families  to  occupy  the  house  at  the  same  time. 


A  SOCIAL  EXPERIMENT      193 

The  rent  is  paid  and  the  house  cleaned  each 
spring.  All  other  expenses,  including  car  fares,  are 
paid  by  the  members  of  the  club  using  the  house. 
The  plan  is  for  each  member  to  use  half  the  house 
for  two  weeks.  By  a  system  of  evolution  and 
working  of  the  law  of  natural  selection,  four  fami- 
lies use  the  house  at  the  same  time.  Mrs.  A.  in- 
vites Mrs.  B.  for  the  two  weeks  that  she  is  entitled 
to  half  of  the  house;  and  Mrs.  B.,  arranging  her 
two  weeks  to  follow  Mrs.  A.,  reciprocates  by  ask- 
ing Mrs.  A.  to  remain  for  her  two  weeks.  Co- 
operative housekeeping  has  developed,  as  has  the 
sharing  in  the  care  of  the  children.  The  barn, 
equipped  for  the  children,  has  been  an  endless  de- 
light. Two  members  have  in  the  past  been  de- 
barred the  use  of  the  house.  One  because  of  the 
character  of  the  men  invited  by  the  husband ;  one 
because  of  the  language  used  to  her  children. 
Both  were  asked  to  resign  from  the  club,  or  to 
make  it  inconvenient  to  use  the  club-house.  One 
resigned.  The  average  number  of  people  using 
this  club-house  has  been  between  four  and  five 
hundred  each  season.  Sick  children  of  neighbors 
have  been  taken  up  by  the  members  and  cared  for 
during  their  whole  vacation.  On  Sundays, 
friends,  relatives  and  city  neighbors  are  guests. 

There  has  never  been  any  supervision  over  the 
house,  except  that  of  the  members.      Each  mem- 


i94     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

ber  leaves  the  part  of  the  house  she  has  used  clean 
for  the  one  coming  after  her.  For  several  years 
the  club  paid  part  of  two  months'  rent,  raised 
through  entertainments.  One  year  the  members 
made  a  donation  of  thirty  dollars.  Broken  dishes 
are  replaced,  and  the  cost  of  repairing  furniture 
broken  is  paid  by  the  member  using  the  furniture 
at  the  time.  The  large  parlor  is  a  club-room,  and 
used  by  every  member  who  goes  up  for  a  day.  A 
closet  is  provided  with  dishes  to  be  used  when  pic- 
nics are  given  by  the  members.  The  theory  is 
that  the  grounds — four  acres — can  be  used  by  the 
members  at  any  time,  but  the  families  in  the  house 
must  not  be  interfered  with  in  any  way. 

The  story  of  this  club  has  been  told  at  this 
length  because  it  has  proved  what  can  be  done  in 
broadening  the  life  of  women  of  natural  intelli- 
gence living  under  tenement-house  conditions; 
how  the  family  can  have  a  common  interest,  to 
which  each  contributes,  a  center  that  can  create 
social  opportunity  for  the  friends  of  every  mem- 
ber and  the  members  of  every  family. 

This  club  has  been  able  to  do  much  to  lighten 
the  burdens  in  the  time  of  financial  crisis  for 
people  who  could  only  have  been  helped  through 
such  a  medium.  It  was  the  help  of  a  friend  al- 
ways. For  years  it  has  been  able  to  distribute 
Thanksgiving    and    Christmas    dinners;    but    it 


A  SOCIAL  EXPERIMENT       195 

grows  more  cautious  every  year,  for  it  has  made 
discoveries  of  the  abuses  of  the  Christmas  dinner- 
giving.  Through  the  children  it  has  been  possi- 
ble to  reach  other  children  who  needed  Christmas 
cheer,  but  who  would  not  take  it  from  ever  so 
kind-hearted  a  public. 

The  long  years  of  working  together  has  ce- 
mented friendships  that  are  the  inheritances  of  the 
children,  and  sons  and  daughters  have  intermar- 
ried. Baby  after  baby  finds  its  godmother  in  the 
club. 

There  have  been  mortifying  failures,  but  there 
have  been  positive  successes  in  the  eleven  years. 
The  club  has  proved  conclusively  that  the  work- 
ing-men's wives  can  be  determining  factors  in 
arousing  and  demanding  better  environment  for 
their  homes ;  that  the  wife  and  mother  who  keeps 
in  touch  with  life  commands  greater  influence  in 
and  outside  her  home,  where  all  that  she  learns  is 
used  to  make  that  home  better ;  that  she  keeps  her 
place  in  her  family  best  when  she  makes  herself 
the  companion  of  her  husband  and  children ;  when 
she,  as  far  as  she  may,  is  herself  the  source  of  their 
social  life,  and  contributes  to  their  mental  inter- 
ests by  sharing  with  them  all  the  educational  op- 
portunity that  life  gives  her. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

WITHIN  THE  WALLS  OF  HOME. 

One  day  a  group  of  unusually  intelligent  wives 
of  working  men  were  driving  through  Central 
Park  in  a  Park  carriage.  All  were  mothers,  some 
of  grown  children,  yet  it  was  the  first  time  that 
twelve  of  the  twenty  (all  but  two  born  in  New 
York)  had  seen  Central  Park.  Coming  back  on 
the  east  drive,  the  closed  houses  on  Fifth  Avenue 
attracted  their  attention.  Various  suggestions 
were  made  as  to  what  use  these  houses  could  be 
put  in  the  summer,  when  one  woman,  slight,  deli- 
cate and  extremely  nervous,  said:  "I  don't  want 
anything  in  those  houses  but  the  room,  just  the 
room.  I've  never  had  all  the  room  I  want.  I 
would  have  if  I  lived  in  them."  After  a  moment 
she  continued:  "The  reason  we  don't  love  each 
other  as  we  should  is  because  we  don't  have  room ; 
we  crowd  each  other.  All  the  time  I  lived  in  my 
father's  home  I  was  crowded.  How  we  used  to 
fight !  Fight  in  the  night,  as  well  as  the  day,  just 
because  we  did  not  have  room.  The  beds  were 
so  crowded  that  one  of  the  young  ones  had  to  sleep 
across  the  foot.      The  big  ones  would  keep  their 


WITHIN  THE  WALLS  197 

feet  up  while  they  were  awake,  but  when  they 
went  to  sleep  they  would  stretch  out  and  kick  the 
one  across  the  foot.  When  I  was  so  little  that  I 
slept  that  way,  I  used  to  lie  awake  in  terror  ex- 
pecting the  kick,  and  how  I  scratched  when  it 
came!  I  know  we  would  have  loved  each  other 
much  more  if  we  could  have  had  room  to  grow 
up  in,  as  the  children  in  those  houses  do.  And 
my  mother!  She  didn't  have  a  room  to  herself 
when  she  had  the  sickness  that  killed  her." 

It  was  pathetic  to  hear  the  revelations  of  the  lit- 
tle miseries  of  childhood  due  to  lack  of  room  in 
the  home.  "My  mother  used  to  drive  us  out  of 
the  house  to  get  a  chance  to  sweep  it,"  said  another 
mother  of  children.  "I  remember  lots  of  times 
standing  down  at  the  hall  door,  shivering,  wait- 
ing for  her  to  get  through.  I  would  go  into  the 
neighbors'  rooms,  but  often  they  had  got  rid  of 
their  own  children  for  the  reason  my  mother  had 
of  hers." 

"I  tell  you  what  used  to  make  me  mad ;  it  was  to 
have  to  wait  for  the  others  to  get  through  eating," 
said  another.  "When  I  hire  a  place  I  always 
look  first  to  see  if  the  kitchen  is  big  enough  to 
pull  the  table  from  the  wall  and  sit  about  it.  I 
don't  think  I  ever  had  any  hot  dinner  when  I  was 
little,  and  it  used  to  make  me  mad.  When  I  had 
three  children  I  moved  just  to  get  a  large  kitchen ; 


198     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

it  ain't  near  so  nice  a  place,  but  the  kitchen  is  big." 
There  was  not  a  woman  there  who  did  not  have  a 
grievance  against  her  childhood  because  there 
was  not  room.  One  of  them  with  crimson 
cheeks  told  how  she  remembered  the  sense  of  com- 
fort that  came  to  her  after  the  death  of  an  older 
sister  because  she  had  a  bed  to  herself;  she  said  it 
was  a  long  time  before  she  knew  the  cause,  for 
she  missed  her  sister's  companionship,  but  she  was 
more  comfortable;  she  enjoyed  having  the  five 
nails  at  the  foot  of  the  bed  for  her  own  clothes. 
The  woman  who  spoke  first  interrupted :  "I  never 
in  my  life  had  even  a  hook  in  the  wall  that  was  my 
own  until  I  was  married.  We  were  so  near 
of  a  size  we  could  wear  each  other's  things,  and 
we  did.  The  one  who  was  quickest  got  the  best 
of  that  size.  You  never  knew  whose  clothes 
you'd  have  to  put  on  in  the  morning.  I'll  never 
have  but  this  child.  She  likes  me.  She  hates  be- 
ing pushed  and  crowded.  She  has  a  bed  and  bu- 
reau of  her  own.  Never,  never  until  my  husband 
can  pay  more  rent  will  we  have  another  child." 
She  paid  the  penalty  of  death  for  this  deter- 
mination. 

As  one  thinks  of  the  number  of  human  beings 
with  all  their  belongings  crowded  into  the  floor 
space  of  a  tenement-house  home,  the  marvel  at  the 


WITHIN  THE  WALLS  199 

endurance  grows  greater.      Think  of  its  limita- 
tions of  conveniences ! 

To  those  who  know  the  limitations  of  a  tene- 
ment-house home,  the  criticisms  and  suggestions 
that  the  superficially  informed  reformers  make 
on  and  for  the  hygienic  management  of  these 
homes  are  at  once  the  source  of  amusement  and 
indignation.  When  stress  is  laid  on  airing  a  bed 
every  morning,  and  one  in  imagination  sees  the 
only  windows  in  another  room  with  a  breakfast 
table  between  them,  a  room  already  overcrowded 
with  things,  the  only  room  for  the  mother  and 
baby  during  the  process,  one  wonders  what  the 
speaker  would  do  under  the  same  circumstances. 
Then  when  the  horrors  of  dust  are  revealed  and 
the  necessity  of  keeping  the  floors  clean  by  fre- 
quent washing  is  made  to  be  imperative,  one  sees 
the  bed  that  just  fits  between  the  walls  at  the  head 
and  foot,  with  half  of  its  own  space  free  in  front 
of  it,  and  again  comes  the  question,  what  would 
the  expert  do  living  under  like  circumstances? 
What  is  needed  everywhere  is  scientific  knowledge 
in  conjunction  with  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
evils  inseparable  from  the  small  dark  rooms  of 
even  the  best  tenements,  and  then  we  will  have 
suggestions  that  the  woman  can  use — can  apply 
to  her  own  family  conditions — who  must  do  the 
work  for  a  family  within  this  space. 


200    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

In  the  best  of  the  tenements  it  will  be  found  that 
where  the  tenants  can  afford  a  parlor,  access  to  it 
is  across  the  kitchen,  where  all  the  work  of  the 
family  must  be  done.  It  will  be  seen  at  once  the 
disadvantage  at  which  the  house-mother  is  when 
friends  who  are  not  intimate  call.  Nothing  stands 
between  her  and  the  outer  world  but  the  door  into 
a  public  hallway.  The  bedrooms  admit  of  a  bed, 
and  sometimes,  but  only  in  the  exceptional  bed- 
room, a  bureau.  This  is  usually  found  in  the 
parlor,  if  there  is  one,  and  in  it  all  the  clothes 
that  can  be  folded,  all  the  little  accessories  belong- 
ing to  the  family ;  to  this,  however,  all  must  have 
access.  If  there  is  a  closet  for  clothes,  or  if  the 
family  can  own  and  house  a  wardrobe,  it  is 
usually  in  this  room,  and  the  common  conve- 
nience of  the  family.  The  bedrooms,  dark,  offer 
no  space  for  a  washstand.  The  kitchen  is  the 
common  wash-room.  The  kitchens  of  the  tene- 
ment houses  built  in  these  later  years  are  a  marvel 
of  inconvenience.  The  dish  closet  is  a  few  shelves 
up  near  the  ceiling,  the  lower  one  of  which  can  be 
reached  by  a  woman  five  feet  four  standing  on  the 
soles  of  her  feet ;  a  chair  is  necessary  to  reach  the 
other  shelves.  Beneath  this  space  is  the  pot 
closet,  or  it  may  be  the  stationary  tubs,  the  top  of 
which  provides  table  space  for  cooking  conve- 
niences. 


WITHIN  THE  WALLS  201 

There  comes  to  mind  now  one  of  the  best  plans 
for  a  tenement  having  four  families  on  each  floor 
on  the  East  Side.  The  stairways  are  lighted  by 
a  window  on  each  landing  opening  on  an  air  shaft, 
and  on  each  floor  is  a  lavatory  with  a  large  win- 
dow. Each  suite  consists  of  four  rooms.  The 
parlor  has  two  windows  on  the  street;  a  kitchen 
window  opening  into  the  parlor,  never  raised 
if  the  family  have  social  standards;  and  a 
window  on  a  large  air  shaft,  or  space  between 
the  two  houses,  on  which  the  bedroom  windows, 
which  are  large,  open.  The  rent  for  these  four 
rooms  is  seventeen  dollars  per  month,  and  they 
are  on  the  fifth  floor.  The  kitchens  in  this  house 
have  been  described.  The  family  have  to  sit  at 
three  sides  of  the  table;  there  is  no  room  to  pull 
it  from  the  wall ;  even  then  one  side  is  uncom- 
fortably near  the  stove.  The  only  space  except 
the  parlor  for  a  refrigerator  is  in  the  bedroom. 
As  there  are  three  young  wage-earners  support- 
ing the  home,  who  are  social,  who  are  encouraged 
by  the  widowed  mother  to  have  their  friends  in 
their  own  home,  this  is  not  to  be  tolerated.  The 
refrigerator  is  in  the  bedroom.  It  was  in  that 
room  when  it  was  occupied  for  four  years  by  a 
girl  dying  of  tuberculosis.  Is  it  any  wonder  that 
the  fight  against  this  disease  is  again  being  waged 
in  that  family  ?     Yet  it  is  above  the  average  of  its 


202     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

class  in  intelligence,  as  the  apartments  are  above 
the  average  in  the  region. 

The  very  elementary  necessity  of  space  and  place 
for  privacy  in  taking  a  bath  is  exceptional.  For 
space,  place  and  light  are  necessary.  A  very  bright 
woman,  perfectly  familiar  with  the  limitations  of 
the  tenement-house  homes,  once  said  to  the 
writer:  "The  truth  is  they  cannot  be  clean  if  they 
are  decent."  A  cruel  truth  which  was  brought 
forcibly  to  the  remembrance  of  the  writer  one  win- 
ter afternoon  in  an  East  Side  home,  where  a 
mother  was  trying  to  bring  up  a  family  to  the  best 
of  her  ability.  When  the  caller  went  into  the 
living-room  of  the  family  a  tub  stood  at  the  side 
of  the  stove,  in  which  was  the  youngest  daughter, 
a  girl  about  eight;  a  brother  of  ten  and  his  boy 
friend  of  twelve  or  fourteen  years  were  playing 
checkers  on  the  other  side  of  the  room.  The 
mother  was  ironing.  There  was  no  conscious- 
ness of  embarrassment  shown  by  the  children. 
The  mother  was  ashamed,  not  at  the  exposure, 
but  at  being  found  out  in  permitting  such  an  ex- 
posure. She  was  a  member  of  a  club  where  the 
training  of  children  was  a  constant  theme.  The 
necessity  of  physical  cleanliness,  its  relation  to 
health,  she  had  grasped,  and  her  children  profited 
by  it.  The  relation  between  privacy  and  morals 
she  had  not  grasped.     It  was  as  though  a  veil  had 


WITHIN  THE  WALLS  203 

fallen  from  her  eyes  as  she  looked  at  her  daughter 
of  eight  standing  naked  before  the  two  boys. 
Whether  such  a  thing  ever  occurred  again  the 
caller  does  not  know ;  that  the  mother  never  for- 
gave the  caller  for  rinding  her  out  she  does  know. 
The  family  had  three  bedrooms,  but  none  would 
permit  the  placing  of  a  washstand  in  them.  One 
was  the  passageway  from  front  to  rear,  for  the 
family  occupied  a  floor,  but  could  afford  only  one 
fire. 

Privacy  is  almost  impossible  in  the  tenement- 
house  home.  One  bedroom  is  usually  the  passage- 
way to  the  next,  if  there  are  two,  or  both  bed- 
rooms are  passageways  from  front  to  rear  of  the 
home,  and  must  be  used  by  all  the  family.  Privacy 
is  impossible  in  these  rooms,  and  there  are  thou- 
sands of  just  such  apartments.  Children  must 
grow  up  in  them  subject  to  the  limitations,  restric- 
tions and  exposures  their  walls  compel.  This  di- 
vision of  space  must  fix  standards  of  reserve,  of 
privacy,  of  social  life.  No  amount  of  love,  not 
even  of  intelligence,  can  save  the  children  from 
the  evils  such  division  of  space  imposes  on  family 
life.  It  deadens  the  sensibilities.  The  insidious 
effects  of  this  is  not  always  realized,  even  by  the 
intelligent  parents  who  accept  them  as.  inevitable. 

One  hardly  knows  whether  to  laugh  or  cry  at 
the  inconsistencies  of  the  standards  of  those  who 


204    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

go  to  Albany  to  secure  the  passage  of  bills  for  the 
betterment  of  the  conditions  of  the  working  peo- 
ple. We  have  secured  a  law  compelling  separate 
closets  for  men  and  women  in  stores  and  factories, 
a  righteous  measure  in  the  interest  of  morality. 
But  the  closets  in  the  tenements  must  be  used  by 
men,  women  and  children  of  several  families.  A 
neighborly  courtesy  is  the  loaning  of  the  key,  to 
save  a  neighbor  a  journey  upstairs.  Children  run 
in  from  the  street,  several  at  a  time,  for  it  is  the 
only  place  provided.  This  publicity  and  free- 
dom is  the  crying  evil  of  the  tenements,  the  one 
from  which  tragedies  come.  The  marvel  is  that 
so  few  follow ;  that  in  spite,  seemingly  in  defiance, 
of  it  all,  characters  develop  that  are  beautiful,  har- 
monious, true. 

Can  one  condemn  the  girl  facing  the  worst 
that  can  befall  her  who  under  pressure  that  her 
appeal  justifies,  yes,  makes  necessary,  confides 
that  her  relations  with  the  man  who  is  the  father 
of  the  coming  child  began  when  each  were  little 
things  six  or  eight  years  old?  A  relation  that 
grew  out  of  lack  of  privacy,  the  intimacy  forced 
by  tenement-house  conditions.  Both  families  have 
gone  far  beyond  their  social  position  at  the  time 
these  two  were  children,  but  the  blasting  of  inno- 
cency  has  left  its  burning  scar  on  the  girl,  and  she 
must  bear  it  alone. 


WITHIN  THE  WALLS  205 

Perhaps  it  is  this  necessarily  open  living  that 
gives  the  love-making  in  the  tenement  region  a 
character  peculiarly  its  own.  When  interest  be- 
tween the  sexes  is  aroused,  it  is  expressed  so 
frankly  and  publicly.  There  are  times  when  re- 
straint would  seem  to  improve  manners;  but 
among  the  working  young  men  and  women  one 
is  constantly  reminded  of  Adam  and  Eve  in  the 
garden  of  Eden.  How  frankly  and  unconsciously 
they  must  have  shown  their  interest  in  each  other, 
and  how  unconsciously  they  must  have  revealed 
their  interest  in  each  other  to  all  the  other  breath- 
ing creatures.  Perhaps  nothing  about  the  love- 
making  is  more  interesting  than  that  numbers  add 
to  the  enjoyment  of  both  lovers.  Nothing  adds 
more  to  the  happiness  of  a  wage-earning  girl  than 
to  have  her  "chum"  deeply  interested  in  and  deep- 
ly interesting  to  a  young  man  at  the  same 
time  she  is.  It  seems  to  be  conceded  that  two 
couples  can  have  so  much  more  pleasure  than  one. 
The  terms  applied  by  these  young  people  to  each 
other  will  reveal  their  social  level  in  the  wage- 
earning  world.  If  the  term  "steady"  is  used 
where  the  world  of  wealth  and  leisure  would  use 
fiance,  the  under  wage-earning  world  is  reached. 
If  "friend"  is  used,  the  social  ladder  covered  by 
that  word,  used  in  that  sense,  has  many  rounds. 
Knowing  many  working  girls  who  would  use  the 


206     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

term  "friend"  when  referring  to  the  man  they  had 
accepted  as  a  future  husband,  or  who  would  in 
time  hold  that  relation,  the  writer  was  constantly 
impressed  by  the  unconscious  protection  the  girls 
threw  about  each  other.  One  would  rarely  hear  of 
plans  made  that  did  not  include  two  beside  the  cou- 
ple engaged,  or  willing  to  be.  Sometimes  two 
girls  were  to  complete  the  party.  It  is  evident  that 
the  more  means  the  merrier  time.  In  every  group 
of  girls  there  will  be  two  or  three  who  cause 
anxiety ;  two  or  three  whose  influence,  unchecked, 
may  lead  to  trouble.  It  is  not  easy  to  restrain 
the  young  people,  for  so  often  the  offenses  are  so 
naturally  the  result  of  environment  that  to  speak 
directly  of  them  would  be  most  unwise.  The 
chances  are  that  reference  to  them  would  put  the 
speaker  in  the  position  of  possessing  knowledge 
of  an  undesirable  kind ;  it  would  seem  to  suggest 
evil.  Often  it  would  be  a  moral  shock  to  many 
working  girls  to  have  their  actions  criticised  from 
the  impression  their  freedom  makes  before  the 
cause  is  understood. 

A  young  girl  joined  a  club  for  young  people. 
From  the  first  she  caused  anxiety.  Her  face  was 
innocent  and  attractive,  but  her  actions  with 
young  men  were  just  the  reverse.  At  last  it  be- 
came necessary  to  speak  to  her.      It  was  evident 


WITHIN  THE  WALLS  207 

that  she  attributed  the  criticism  to  what  she 
termed  "fussiness."  Not  the  least  modification 
in  her  manner  followed.  At  last,  after  many  in- 
terviews, she  was  told  that  she  would  never  be 
spoken  to  again.  If  she  offended  in  the  club-room 
once  more,  she  would  be  given  her  hat.  That 
would  mean  that  she  was  not  to  again  enter  those 
rooms.  She  confided  to  her  intimate  friend  that 
no  one  had  ever  told  her  that  what  she  did  was 
wrong.  After  this  interview,  a  modification  of 
her  manner  was  noticed,  not  because  she  was  con- 
vinced she  was  wrong,  but  because  she  thought 
it  wise  to  heed.  A  group  of  young  people  were 
returning  from  a  picnic.  Just  after  the  homeward 
journey  had  begun,  it  was  seen  that  this  young 
girl  was  sitting  in  the  lap  of  a  young  man  whom 
she  had  always  known ;  as  children  they  lived  for 
years  in  the  same  tenement.  Beside  him  sat  the 
young  girl  whom  he  had  invited  to  the  club  pic- 
nic. The  club  girl  sat  so  unconscious  of  any  in- 
fringement of  manners,  public  or  private,  that  a 
young  man  who  had  grown  up  under  the  same 
conditions  was  asked  what  he  thought  of  the  act. 
He  started  at  once  to  tell  the  girl  to  stand  up,  but 
was  restrained.  Evidently  he  was  shocked,  and 
the  act  was  wrong  from  his  standpoint,  the  only 
standpoint  fair  to  the  girl.     A  seat  was  made  for 


208    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

the  girl  elsewhere,  who,  for  the  first  time,  showed 
distress,  or  rather  anxiety,  because  of  her  own 
acts.     Nothing  was  said  to  her. 

Occasion  was  made  to  speak  to  the  young  man 
who  had  kept  his  seat  and  let  the  girl  sit  in  his 
lap.  He  was  a  working  man,  and  his  hands 
showed  it.  All  his  life  of  twenty-two  years  he 
had  lived  under  tenement-house  conditions. 

" Frank,  would  you  marry  a  girl  who  sat  in  a 
man's  lap  in  a  railroad  train  ?"  he  was  asked. 

"No,"  he  responded  indignantly. 

"Do  you  suppose  you  are  the  only  man  in  the 
world  who  has  that  feeling?  What  right  have 
you  to  let  any  girl  cheapen  herself  so  that  the  man 
who  saw  her  with  you,  doing  what  you  permitted, 
if  you  did  not  suggest  and  encourage,  would  not 
marry  her?" 

The  man's  face  grew  white.  He  had  a  sister  of 
whom  he  was  very  fond  and  very  proud. 

"What  would  you  do  to  the  man  who  permitted 
your  sister,  when  she  was  tired,  to  do  what  you 
permitted  a  girl  to  do  to-night — a  girl  who  has 
no  brother  to  watch  over  her?" 

The  young  man  was  six  feet  tall.  He  rose  to 
his  feet,  and,  raising  his  hands  toward  the  starlit 
sky,  he  said : 

"As  true  as  there  is  a  God  above  me,  I 
will   never   while   I    live   let   any   girl   do   what 


WITHIN  THE  WALLS  209 

I  am  not  willing  my  own  sister  should  do  any- 
where." 

After  a  moment's  quiet,  the  chaperon  said : 

"I  shall  never  mention  this  to  the  girl.  I  hold 
you  responsible.  You  are  stronger  mentally,  mor- 
ally and  physically,  and  are  wholly  to  blame.', 
Whether  he  spoke  to  the  girl  or  not,  no  one  knows, 
but  never  again  was  it  necessary  to  even  mentally 
criticise  that  young  girl's  manners  with  young 
men.  Not  only  did  her  manners  change,  but  the 
expression  of  her  face.  One  grew  to  love  and 
trust  her,  and  ask  her  help  for  other  girls. 

The  chivalry  of  the  working  boys  and  young 
men  is  constantly  seen,  unconsciously  revealed. 
Sometimes  it  is  dangerous  the  degree  in  which  it 
shows  itself  among  the  finest  of  the  boys.  A  sick 
girl,  unable  to  go  out,  will  command  attentions  so 
special  and  direct  that  the  fear  of  her  misunder- 
standing, and  suffering  because  she  has  not  under- 
stood, will  make  those  interested  who  know  the 
danger  unhappy;  sympathy  from  any  cause  will 
make  a  great-hearted  working  boy  place  himself 
in  a  position  where  he  may  be  easily  misunder- 
stood. 

It  is  astonishing  how  long  the  spirit  of  child- 
hood will  live  in  working  boys  and  girls,  even 
under  conditions  that  seem  never  to  justify  hap- 
piness and  spontaneity ! 


210    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

One  Sunday  a  group  of  working  men  and  girls 
went  nutting,  being  duly  and  properly  chaperoned. 
Four  of  the  young  men  climbed  a  big  walnut  tree. 
The  girls,  with  some  of  the  young  men,  were 
gathered  at  the  foot,  waiting  for  the  shower  of 
nuts.  The  chaperon  sat  on  a  stone  fence  a  little 
way  off.  The  wind  began  to  blow,  swaying  the 
top  branches.  One  of  the  young  men  having  a 
good  voice  laid  himself  along  a  limb  high  from 
the  ground,  singing  "Rock-a-bye,  baby,  on  the  tree 
top."  The  others  took  it  up  and  the  girls  joined 
in.  Over  and  over  it  was  sung.  Then  the  girls 
and  boys  on  the  ground  joined  hands  outside  the 
span  of  the  tree  and  sang  "Ring  around  a  rosy." 
Every  singing  game  of  childhood  was  enthusi- 
astically played.  Every  one  of  these  young  peo- 
ple were  poor  as  the  world  counts  wealth — every 
one  over  eighteen — all  had  worked  from  the  first 
moment  they  could  earn  wages.  Each  one  had 
suffered  the  wearing  anxiety  of  no  wages  when 
the  family  needed  what  they  could  earn,  and  yet 
they  sang — they  felt  like  children.  No  amount 
of  money  at  the  time  could  have  bought  them 
this  happiness. 

The  sun  poured  down  a  glory  of  yellow  light 
on  the  trees  that  seemed  to  have  caught  its 
color  dashed  with  red  flames.  Across  the  field 
came  one  of  the  girls  slowly — a  girl  who  never 


WITHIN  THE  WALLS  211 

had  manifested  any  enthusiasm,  except  for  dan- 
cing; who  never  gave  expression  to  any  emo- 
tion of  feeling.  It  was  thought  impossible  to 
move  her.  As  she  came  nearer,  it  was  seen  that 
she  was  deeply  stirred ;  her  face  was  expressive. 
Putting  her  head  against  the  arm  of  the  chap- 
eron, she  whispered,  rather  than  spoke:  "I  did 
not  know  trees  were  any  color  but  green  before." 
The  tears  were  chasing  each  other  down  her 
cheeks,  while  her  mouth  was  wreathed  with  smiles. 
The  girl  was  over  twenty.  Had  she  been  born  in 
a  family  that  would  use  the  privileges  of  the  vari- 
our  Fresh-Air  organizations,  she  would  have 
known  more  of  the  country.  It  was  this  year  that 
she  first  saw  the  stars  over  the  trees,  and  the  moon 
at  the  full  in  the  sky  when  it  had  a  horizon.  Obe- 
dience to  her  was  not  easy,  but  to  her  brother 
she  gave  it  willingly;  he  had  been  her  nurse  in 
babyhood,  her  friend  and  companion  in  childhood, 
and  was  now  her  protector.  In  every  plan  of 
these  young  people  he  considered  his  sister  first. 
If  she  had  an  escort,  he  invited  some  other  girl  to 
go  with  him ;  if  not,  he  took  his  sister.  The  girl 
never  manifested  any  interest  in  young  men  be- 
yond their  ability  to  dance  well.  She  would  find 
a  dozen  reasons  for  not  dancing  if  she  found  her- 
self on  the  floor  with  an  awkward  dancer. 

This  group  of  twenty-two  young  men  and  wo- 


212    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

men,  all  from  homes  that  would  bar  the  door  to 
charity,  even  when  suffering,  were  fairly  repre- 
sentative of  the  social  standard  of  the  better  part 
of  the  wage-earning  world  of  New  York.  Among 
them  was  the  independent  girl,  the  one  who  had 
no  desire  to  be  sought  in  marriage;  she  saw  the 
worries  of  her  sisters  married  to  men  having  small 
and  uncertain  wages;  saw  the  wearing  side  of 
motherhood  rather  than  its  joys.  She  skillfully 
kept  her  young  men  friends  as  friends,  changing 
from  one  to  the  other  as  soon  as  she  saw  the 
line  of  friendship  being  crossed.  The  girl  who 
never  won  attention  till  she  wooed  it  was  among 
them ;  the  girl  who  was  treated  discourteously  or 
neglected  was  one  of  them.  The  girl  who  was 
sought  for  exhibition  because  she  dressed  well,  yet 
who  never  roused  any  deeper  feeling,  was  there, 
for  some  of  the  men  were  very  observant,  and  had 
standards  of  style  for  the  girls  they  escorted. 

There  was  the  young  man  who  willfully  played 
with  a  girl's  feelings ;  the  young  man  who  openly 
exhibited  the  love  he  had  awakened,  but  to  which 
he  did  not  respond ;  the  girl  whose  adoration  re- 
ceived indifferent  treatment,  yet  who  was  never 
entirely  cast  aside  by  the  man  too  selfish  to  marry. 
In  that  company  there  was  one  couple  who  were 
sentimental  in  their  actions;  they  would  sit  and 
hold  hands,  if  permitted,  rather  than  dance.     As 


THE    FOREST    OF   THE   TENEMENTS. 


WITHIN  THE  WALLS  213 

soon  as  it  was  discovered  that  their  actions  were 
influencing  others,  they  were  given  the  choice  to 
restrain  the  expression  of  their  affection  in  pub- 
lic completely  or  resign.  The  lesson  was  effec- 
tual. When  it  was  seen  that  one  of  the  young 
men  was  very  deeply  interested  in  one  of  the 
young  women,  that  she  was  only  semi-conscious 
of  his  interest,  yet  enjoyed  it,  while  not  at  all  in- 
terested in  him,  just  a  few  words,  pointing  out 
how  unkind  it  was  to  permit  his  interest  to  de- 
velop and  how  unfair  to  let  him  spend  money  for 
her  when  she  never  meant  to  hold  any  relation 
but  that  of  friend,  changed  her  attitude  toward 
him.  She  made  the  young  man  understand  her 
position.  More  than  that,  she  gave  her  lesson  to 
the  other  girls,  and  escorts  were  changed  fre- 
quently ;  groups  arranged  to  go  to  the  theater  in- 
stead of  couples.  As  one  girl  put  it,  "We  don't 
want  any  nonsense."  Yet  several  marriages  have 
occurred  among  these  members,  the  new  homes 
making  centers  of  social  interest  for  the  others. 
The  babies  are  objects  of  deepest  interest  to  all, 
and  it  is  a  lesson  to  see  the  ease  and  freedom  with 
which  even  the  young  men  will  hold  them.  Much 
is  said  of  the  "little  mothers,"  but  the  "little 
fathers"  are  as  unselfish  and  devoted  a  part  of  the 
family  life  in  the  tenements  as  the  little  mothers. 
When  a  great,  strong  young  man  picks  up  a  baby 


214    LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

with  the  ease  of  a  woman,  is  interested  in  its  ills 
of  the  moment,  one  is  grateful  for  the  hours  that, 
as  a  child,  he  spent  as  nurse;  sees  the  beauty 
of  strength  and  tenderness,  and  the  humanizing 
effect  of  the  maternal  in  the  character  of  a  boy 
whose  character  must  be  molded  by  the  environ- 
ment of  a  tenement-house  region. 

The  rapidity  with  which  a  complete  change  of 
standard  of  manners  can  be  attained  amazed  those 
who  watched  these  young  people.  Outdoor  life 
was  possible  to  them  only  on  Sunday.  When  first 
the  trips  on  the  railroad  began,  the  noise,  free- 
dom, constant  changing  of  seats  mortified  those 
who  chaperoned  the  group.  The  journeys  began 
in  the  spring.  One  Sunday  evening  in  Novem- 
ber, when  returning  from  a  nutting  party,  a  group 
of  young  people  entered  the  car  laughing,  push- 
ing, slapping  one  another  The  young  men  and 
women  who  had  been  going  to  the  country  almost 
every  Sunday  for  the  summer  looked  in  amaze- 
ment at  one  another,  and  with  very  evident  disap- 
proval at  the  new  group.  Yet  they  had  offended, 
if  offense  can  be  committed  in  perfect  innocence, 
in  just  that  way  many  times  a  few  months  before. 
It  is  this  adaptability,  this  quickness  of  compre- 
hension of  the  little  things,  that  give  the  -outward 
stamp,   that  make  the   American   wage-earning 


WITHIN  THE  WALLS  215 

young  people  so  intensely  interesting,  so  wonder- 
ful in  social  achievement. 

These  young  people  were  all  Americans,  of 
Christian  parentage,  as  the  word  means,  not  He- 
brews. The  young  women  worked  in  shops  with 
girls  of  Hebrew  parentage.  There  were  deep 
race  antagonisms,  due  to  many  causes,  but  prin- 
cipally to  the  willingness  of  the  Hebrews  to  ac- 
cept any  wages  and  work  anywhere  and  any  num- 
ber of  hours.  These  American  girls  grew  to  have 
the  deepest  sympathy  with  the  girls  of  Hebrew 
birth  when  they  found  that  many  Hebrew  parents 
coerced,  while  all  regulated,  the  marriage  of  their 
daughters.  That  parents  would  dare  to  assume 
such  authority  in  so  personal  a  matter  as  marriage 
aroused  the  most  extravagant  terms  of  condemna- 
tion. One  listening  could  well  believe  the  hope- 
lessness of  trying  to  make  one  of  these  girls  marry 
against  her  will. 

No  greater  contrast  could  be  conceived  than  the 
entire  independence  of  these  girls  in  their  social 
relations,  which  they  did  not  view  as  a  privilege 
but  considered  a  right.  Beyond  the  fact  that 
some  of  them  must  be  at  home  at  ten  or  half-past, 
there  was  no  law  but  their  own  will.  This  free- 
dom is  one  of  the  most  serious  influences  in  the 
life  of  working  girls  in  New  York.     Were  it  not 


216    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

for  their  common  sense  and  the  knowledge  of  life 
thrust  on  them  when  children,  the  effect  would 
be  most  disastrous  for  the  country.  As  it  is,  in 
certain  ways  young  men  and  women  retain  the 
frankness  of  childhood  in  their  intercourse.  One 
realizes  what  perfect  equality  between  the  sexes 
is  when  mingling  freely  with  them.  Doubtless 
this  comes  from  playing  in  the  street  together 
from  earliest  childhood,  with  no  favors  asked  or 
conceded  because  one  is  a  girl,  and  the  impossi- 
bility of  privacy.  This  last  is  the  saddest  fact  in 
the  life  of  tenement-house  children. 

At  the  lower  rounds  of  the  social  ladder  in  the 
wage-earning  world  the  mother  and  baby  are  in- 
separable, if  the  mother  does  not  drink.  Night 
and  day  the  baby  is  cared  for,  often  in  hopeless  ig- 
norance, but  cared  for.  Often  everything  else  is 
neglected.  When  the  baby  sleeps,  the  mother  is 
too  tired  to  work,  too  indifferent.  When  awake, 
the  baby  insists  on  being  held.  One  is  frequently 
reminded  of  the  story  of  the  woman  whose  moan 
when  her  baby  died  was:  "What  excuse  can  I 
give  John  now?"  Yet  the  day  that  baby  is  able 
to  walk  alone  on  the  street  the  mother  loosens  her 
hold.  The  baby  finds  its  freedom  limited  only 
by  its  ability  to  remain  upright,  and  to  return  to 
its  home  for  meals  and  at  night.  "Throw  me  the 
key  and  a  piece  of  bread,"  is  often  the  extent  of  its 


WITHIN  THE  WALLS  217 

demands  from  the  sidewalk.  True,  the  mother 
knows  every  woman  in  the  block  will  be,  in  an 
emergency,  a  mother.  The  child  learns  to  care 
for  itself;  it  makes  less  and  less  demands  on  the 
mother,  who  may  even  now  have  another  baby 
compelling  all  her  thought  and  time.  Above  this 
scale,  where  home-making  assumes  importance, 
the  child  remains  longer  under  the  mother's  care; 
is  watched  when  on  the  street  by  glanees  from  the 
window;  is  sent  to  school,  and  some  oversight 
maintained  over  its  school  life ;  but  the  wage-earn- 
ing period  means  emancipation  from  oversight 
often  even  at  this  level.  Hundreds  of  girls  start 
out  and  find  work  for  the  first  time  without  any 
evident  responsibility  on  the  part  of  even  good 
mothers.  No  amount  of  familiarity  with  this 
exercise  of  freedom  deadens  the  horror  of  it  to 
the  outsider.  Women,  mothers  of  attractive 
daughters,  will  not  know  the  street  on  which  the 
daughters  work.  After  one  of  the  most  disas- 
trous fires  in  New  York,  in  which  many  working 
girls  perished,  four  mothers  notified  the  police 
the  next  day  that  their  daughters  had  disappeared. 
It  was  the  failure  to  trace  the  girls  and  the  adver- 
tising of  their  disappearance  that  led,  through 
companions  who  had  escaped  from  the  building, 
to  the  awful  conclusion  that  these  four  had  per- 
ished in  the  flames. 


218     LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

Sometimes  it  would  be  difficult  for  a  mother  to 
go  to  the  place  where  the  daughter  finds  employ- 
ment; but  here,  as  in  everything  else  in  life,  that 
which  is  deemed  the  more  important  receives  at- 
tention. Perhaps  it  is  the  habit  of  trust,  or  in- 
difference, that  governs  mothers'  activities. 

A  girl  will  make  intimate  friendships  un- 
hindered, unguided  by  mothers  who  act  up  to  the 
measure  of  their  comprehension  of  the  duties  of 
a  mother.  Girls  are  admitted  to  the  homes  who 
are  unknown  outside  of  the  workshop ;  they  work 
with  the  daughter ;  no  other  background  is  known. 
The  mother  knows  that  other  mothers  are  accept- 
ing her  daughters  on  the  same  basis  of  knowledge. 
For  their  young  men  friends  there  may  be,  but  as 
frequently  there  will  not  be,  any  greater  sense 
of  responsibility  than  for  the  girl  friends.  In 
homes  where  the  income  would  seem  to  demand 
a  sense  of  social  responsibility  it  is  found  want- 
ing, and  young  people  come  and  go  unhindered. 
If  there  are  two  or  more  young  wage-earners  in 
the  family,  their  conversation  may  bring  knowl- 
edge of  what  they  are  doing,  where  they  are  go- 
ing. But  they  also  make  compacts  at  conceal- 
ments of  disobedience  where  there  are  laws  to  be 
obeyed. 

The  world  has  been  shocked  by  the  tragedies 
of  death  and  disgrace  that  came  to  the  homes  of 


WITHIN  THE  WALLS  219 

two  young  working  girls  within  the  past  year.  In 
each  case  the  father  and  mother  had  gone  to  bed 
with  the  daughters  out  in  the  night,  where  they 
did  not  know;  one  a  girl  of  eighteen,  the  other 
less.  The  "cadet"  system  would  never  exist  were 
the  parents  of  every  girl  alert  to  train  and  guard 
her  the  more  closely  because  she  was  a  working 
girl. 

Until  by  some  direct  process  the  control  of 
daughters  and  of  sons  is  made  desirable,  and  then 
natural  in  the  wage-earners'  homes,  the  problem 
of  family  life  in  the  tenements  will  remain  un- 
solved. It  is  a  question  sometimes  whether, 
and  sometimes  it  is  very  evident,  that  by  the 
giving  up  of  wages  to  the  parents  the  freedom  of 
the  workers,  even  though  but  children,  from  obe- 
dience and  parental  oversight  is  purchased. 

Those  who  know  working  girls  know  how  high 
is  the  average  of  morality.  Years  will  go  by  in 
intimate  relations  with  the  same  group  of  girls 
and  no  tragedy  will  mar  it;  no  echo  of  tragedy 
among  their  friends.  The  hardness  with  which 
even  the  suggestion  of  looseness  is  treated  in  any 
group  of  working  girls  is  simply  an  expression  of 
self-preservation.  A  group  of  sixty  girls,  earn- 
ing the  lowest  wages  and  living  under  the  worst 
conditions,  were  watched  five  years  and  one  girl 
fell.     As  one  goes  over  her  history  from  birth,  any 


iio    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

other  result  would  seem  a  miracle.  A  girl  ar- 
rested gave  the  first  name  and  address  of  one  of 
the  girls  in  this  factory.  The  case  was  reported 
in  the  papers.  By  an  unfortunate  circumstance, 
the  working  girl  living  at  that  number  was  away 
from  the  factory  two  days  at  this  time.  When 
she  learned  of  the  connection  that  had  been  made 
because  of  the  chance  use  of  her  Christian  name 
and  her  address,  she  told  a  lie  as  to  where  she  was 
at  the  time  of  that  arrest.  The  other  girls  struck 
until  she  was  discharged.  The  girl  was  innocent 
of  everything  but  the  lie;  investigation  proved 
this.  The  girls  would  not  recede  from  their  po- 
sition; work  had  to  be  found  for  the  girl  else- 
where. She  was  publicly  marked.  They  could 
not  convince  everybody  of  her  innocence;  lots  of 
people  believed  the  story,  and  they  would  not  work 
with  her;  go  back  and  forth  with  her. 

A  room  was  hired  as  a  lunch-room  for  these 
girls.  They  brought  their  own  lunches  and  paid 
a  small  amount  of  dues,  which  were  used  to  pay 
for  tea  served  daily.  The  projectors  of  this  little 
enterprise  were  girls  of  wealth  and  social  position ; 
three  were  at  the  lunch-room  every  day.  By  rep- 
resenting themselves  as  friends  of  the  projectors 
to  the  caretaker,  two  representatives  of  a  "yellow 
journal"  gained  access  to  the  room.  One,  a  wo- 
man, engaged  the  caretaker  in  conversation  for 


WITHIN  THE  WALLS  in 

some  time  in  the  hall,  getting  all  the  information 
she  could  give  her.  The  Sunday  edition  of  that 
paper  contained  an  illustration  of  the  room  filled 
with  wretched-looking  girls,  while  young  women 
holding  up  trailing  skirts  were  passing  cups.  The 
text  was  as  far  from  the  truth  as  the  picture.  The 
working  girls  absolutely  refused  to  go  to  the 
lunch-room  again.  At  last  they  agreed  that  if  the 
paper  would  publish  a  true  account — that  they 
provided  their  own  lunches  and  paid  dues,  and 
waited  on  themselves — they  would  go  back.  The 
paper  refused.  Two  of  those  girls  would  never 
enter  the  rooms  again. 

The  working  girl  has  suffered  quite  as  much  at 
the  hands  of  yellow  journalism  as  the  woman  of 
wealth  and  social  position.  Not  one  of  these  girls 
went  to  school  until  she  was  fourteen ;  nor  during 
any  year  since  she  began  working  had  she  earned 
on  an  average  more  than  $3.50  per  week.  Yet 
they  had  social  standards  to  maintain,  and  com- 
pelled recognition  of  them  by  those  who  opened 
opportunities  to  them. 

The  inspiring  fact  remains  that  the  standard 
of  home  life  in  ethics,  as  in  necessities,  is  raising. 
Without  doubt  much  of  this  is  due  to  the  improve- 
ment in  the  class  of  readers  used  in  our  public 
schools.  They  are  not  perfect  in  the  matter  of  se- 
lection, but  they  carry  messages  to  the  hearts,  as 


222     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

well  as  the  heads,  of  the  children,  few  of  whom 
would  pass  an  examination  on  their  contents. 
Even  the  primary  grades  introduce  the  children 
to  the  best  thoughts  of  all  time,  and  the  crumbs, 
at  least,  are  carried  to  the  homes. 

The  girls  who  belong  to  the  working-girls'  club 
carry  with  them  everywhere  the  influence  that  is 
molding  their  characters  to  a  brighter  type  of 
American  womanhood.  The  Settlements  soon 
become  centers  of  education  through  the  social 
activities  they  make  possible  to  the  people.  They 
surpass  the  clubs  in  this,  that  boys  and  girls, 
young  men  and  women,  each  have  in  them  the  cen- 
ter that  makes  possible  social  occasions  that  are 
within  their  means  and  under  rightful  guides; 
together  men  and  women  are  trained  socially.  The 
Settlements  have  been  in  existence  long  enough  to 
have  the  children  that  were  the  first  friends  of 
the  Residents  now  the  fathers  and  mothers  of 
children.  The  years  of  contact  show  results  in 
the  homes  established,  in  the  kind  of  care  and  the 
ambitions  held  for  the  children  still  babies. 
Wages  have  not  greatly  changed  from  those 
earned  by  the  fathers  of  these  new  home-makers ; 
but  money  represents  different  values.  The  kin- 
dergarten is  the  first  thing  demanded  for  their 
children,  and  the  seeds  sown  in  the  minds  of  these 


WITHIN  THE  WALLS  223 

young  mothers  bear  fruit  one  hundred-fold  be- 
cause it  is  prepared. 

The  kindergarten  mother  clubs  have  also  borne 
fruit  in  the  homes  where  even  the  youngest  child 
has  gone  beyond  the  kindergarten's  age.  These 
mothers  learn  for  the  first  time  the  need  of  sym- 
pathy; of  living  with  the  children  through  every 
period  of  growth ;  of  sharing  and  of  making  to- 
gether a  home.  The  result  is,  the  homes  gain  in 
moral  fiber  and  moral  purpose.  The  schools  and 
the  homes  are  brought  into  close  relation  through 
these  beginnings,  and  the  child  finds  its  interests 
a  unit,  and  home  the  place  where  its  whole  good 
is  of  vital  importance.  The  mother  establishes 
the  home  often  on  the  basis  of  contrast.  "It  shall 
not  be  what  mine  was ;  their  lives  shall  not  be  what 
mine  was  when  I  was  a  child." 

The  churches,  many  of  them,  provide  for  the  so- 
cial life  of  their  people;  these  social  activities  must 
be  of  a  character  that  wins  those  who  have  the 
least  to  contend  with  in  themselves,  who  find  a 
pleasure  and  inspiration  in  religious  life,  which 
often  is  far  more  a  matter  of  temperament  than 
of  spiritual  development. 

One  sees  the  highest  expression  of  spiritual  de- 
velopment in  lives  apart  from  the  Church  as  well 
as  in  the  Church.  This  it  is  that  develops  a  feel- 
ing of  reverence  for  any  movement  having  for  its 


224     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

object  the  bettering  of  the  social  life  of  the  people. 
One  learns  that  every  vulgarity  that  becomes  ob- 
noxious; every  freedom  that  is  brought  within 
the  bounds  of  restraint  by  new  standards  of  edu- 
cation and  refinement ;  every  influence  set  in  mo- 
tion because  of  the  spiritual  perception  of  the 
answer  to  the  question,  "Am  I  my  brother's 
keeper?"  means  spiritual  life  growing  toward  that 
of  the  Master  of  time,  whose  laws  are  but  two  for 
the  guiding  of  men,  "Love  the  Lord  thy  God," 
"Thy  neighbor  as  thyself;"  and  these  make 
neither  cross  nor  steeple  necessary,  for  they  may 
be  obeyed  in  the  heart  and  guide  the  life  wherever 
it  is  lived. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

FINANCIAL  RELATIONS  IN  FAMILIES. 

The  women  of  education  who  attempted  to 
make  the  conditions  of  working-men's  families 
better,  found  their  own  education  advanced,  their 
values  of  essentials  greatly  modified  in  some  re- 
spects, greatly  enlarged  in  others.  This  was  due 
to  the  bravery,  the  unselfishness,  the  contradic- 
tions of  character  forced  on  their  attention 
through  the  natural,  familiar  intercourse  made 
possible  through  neighborhood  and  club  relations. 

Probably  the  most  astonishing  experience  in 
working-girls'  club  life  is  the  revelation  of  the 
entire  lack  of  self-consciousness  on  the  part  of 
working  girls  as  to  anything  remarkable  in  their 
giving  up  wages  not  only  week  after  week,  but 
year  after  year,  for  the  benefit  of  their  families. 
The  closer  one  gets  to  the  poorest  paid  of  the 
working  girls,  the  more  common  is  this  uncon- 
scious unselfishness.  In  fact,  the  girl  at  this  level 
who  would  attempt  to  hold  or  even  to  introduce 
a  business  relation  in  her  family  relation,  would 
find  herself  an  object  of  contempt,  even  when  the 
personal  habits  of  those  who  controlled  the  use  of 


226     LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

the  money  she  earned  were  of  such  a  character  as 
to  certainly  mean  waste  of  the  money,  perhaps 
worse. 

However  one's  judgment  may  at  times  con- 
demn this  unselfishness  and  recognize  in  it  a  posi- 
tive evil,  one's  heart  is  thrilled  by  the  spirit  of 
loyalty  and  devotion  of  which  it  is  the  evidence. 
Three  sisters  belonged  to  a  working-girls'  club. 
They  were  all  employed  in  one  establishment  and 
earned  good  wages,  yet  they  never  had  clothes 
that  made  them  even  comfortable.  It  was  a  mys- 
tery. They  did  not  belong  to  the  race  which  too 
frequently  make  thrift  a  vice,  but  were  descend- 
ants of  one  the  world  counts  thriftless.  The 
months  passed  on.  One  of  the  sisters  became  in- 
dispensable to  the  club.  She  had  the  rarest  tact, 
while  straightforward  and  frank.  When  the  sec- 
ond winter  came,  the  pressure  of  life  on  these 
girls  was  very  evident.  How  to  relieve  it,  how 
even  to  approach  the  subject  without  appearing  in- 
trusive and  meddlesome,  was  the  wearing  problem 
of  the  club  directors.  After  the  holidays  the  in- 
fluence of  one  of  the  directors  was  asked  by  one  of 
the  sisters  in  behalf  of  a  brother.  Then  the  cause 
of  the  pressure  was  unconsciously  revealed.  There 
were  five  brothers  and  a  father  in  the  family. 

The  story  unfolded.  For  years  these  three  girls 
had  supported  the  family;  the  six  men  had  always 


FINANCIAL  RELATIONS       227 

been  the  victims  of  cruel  "bosses."  Worthy,  in- 
dustrious, anxious  to  work,  looking  for  work  all 
the  time,  they  never  succeeded  in  finding  work 
under  conditions  that  made  it  possible  for  them 
to  continue.  The  years  of  self-sacrifice  had  not 
shaken  the  faith  of  these  sisters  in  the  smallest  de- 
gree. "What  would  happen  if  your  foreman 
would  become  arbitrary  and  cross?"  was  asked. 
The  reply  revealed  the  whole  conception  of  wo- 
man's relation  to  life  as  they  held  it.  "It's  differ- 
ent with  women ;  they  have  to  bear  things." 

Another  year  passed  without  any  change,  ex- 
cept that  the  sisters  grew  old  faster  than  they 
should.  A  quiet,  determined  effort  was  made  to 
influence  these  girls  to  pay  board  to  their  mother 
instead  of  giving  all  their  wages.  They  listened 
to  the  argument  that  as  long  as  they  continued 
their  present  system  the  brothers  would  not  work 
steadily.  The  sisters  listened,  but  the  system  did 
not  change.  Every  penny  was  handed  to  the 
mother  for  disbursement. 

One  morning  in  the  early  spring,  three  years 
after  these  girls  had  joined  the  club,  word 
came  that  the  sister  who  had  grown  dear  to 
the  club  directors,  to  every  member  of  the  club, 
was  dead.  She  had  dropped  to  the  floor  at 
her  bench  the  day  before,  and  died  in  the 
night.       "Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this, 


228     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends." 
The  sacrifice  was  complete.  Standing  in  the  room 
of  death  with  the  six  able-bodied  men  for  whom 
this  girl  had  given  up  her  life,  the  sacrifice  seemed 
barren,  for  its  fruits  had  been  garnered  in  her  own 
character  and  had  gone  out  of  this  life. 

A  year  later  the  mother  sent  for  one  of  the  di- 
rectors of  the  club  to  have  her  plead  with  the 
sisters  remaining  that  they  would  give  her  their 
wages  as  formerly.  "They  only  pay  board  now; 
they  refuse  to  do  anything  for  the  poor  boys. 

'Twas  a  bad  day  when died.  Shure,  she  gave 

me  every  cent.  Not  one  did  she  keep  back.  Ever 
since  she  died,  the  girls  just  pay  board,  not  a  cent 
more.  See  how  comfortable  they  are.  They 
bought  waterproofs,  both  of  them,  last  week,  and 

Jim  has  no  overcoat.      would  have  bought 

him  an  overcoat." 

"Yes,  doubtless  she  would.  I  remember  the 
winter  before  she  died  she  wore  a  spring  jacket 
all  winter,  and  that  her  shoes  had  been  broken  for 
weeks  before  she  died."  "Shure,  I  know."  Tears 
fell  from  the  woman's  eyes,  and  her  face  bore 
every  evidence  of  sorrow.  "The  boys  could  not 
get  work  that  winter.      God  knows  they  tried. 

They  had  to  have  clothes,  and  was  a  good 

daughter.  'Twas  a  bad  day  for  me  when  she 
died."     The  mother  had  not  the  slightest  concep- 


FINANCIAL  RELATIONS       229 

tion  of  the  sacrifice  her  daughter  had  made — a 
sacrifice  that  had  cost  her  her  life.  Her  thought 
was  for  her  sons;  their  comforts  were  to  be  se- 
cured through  the  daughters,  who  were  a  sec- 
ondary consideration. 

When  her  visitor  protested  against  the  sisters 
working  to  support  the  brothers  in  idleness,  the 
mother  was  indignant.  When  she  tried  to  show 
the  woman  that  if  the  boys  were  forced  by  hun- 
ger and  cold  to  go  to  work  it  would  be  their  moral 
salvation,  the  mother  insisted  that  they  did  try 
to  get  work,  but  that  it  was  their  "fate"  to  have 
unreasonable  "bosses,"  who  made  it  impossible 
for  them  to  work  under  them. 

"Do  you  think  the  girls  always  work  under  con- 
ditions that  are  easy  ?" 

"No;  but  it  is  easier  for  a  woman  to  stand  a 
hard  'boss,'  "  was  the  mother's  answer,  without 
any  expression  of  sympathy.  Again  she  urged 
that  the  visitor  use  her  influence  with  the  two  sis- 
ters for  them  to  go  back  to  their  old  method  of 
giving  the  mother  their  wages.  When  the  visitor 
refused,  the  amazement  of  the  woman  at  her  re- 
fusal was  pathetic.  When  the  visitor  confessed 
that  she  was  largely  responsible  for  the  change 
in  the  girls'  use  of  their  wages,  the  mother's  indig- 
nation rose  to  the  point  of  abuse.  That  her  boys 
were  robbed  was  the  idea  fastened  in  her  mind. 


230    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

That  the  club  was  the  enemy  of  that  home  was  the 
mother's  conviction. 

The  mental  attitude  of  this  mother  is  by  no 
means  unusual.  It  is  a  common  thing1  to  find 
mothers  who  insist  on  controlling  the  wages  of 
daughters  who  make  no  exactions  in  regard  to  the 
wages  of  sons.  The  effect  is  to  lessen  the  self- 
respect  of  the  girls  and  the  sense  of  personal  re- 
sponsibility of  the  boys.  In  the  family  referred 
to  the  experiment  of  paying  board  to  the  mother 
was  watched  carefully.  It  was  a  success.  The 
effect  on  the  girls  was  positive.  They  developed 
a  sense  of  personal  responsibility ;  they  grew  more 
dignified  and  more  reliable;  above  all,  they  de- 
veloped self-respect.  The  fight  was  a  hard  one, 
but  the  moral  victory  was  won.  The  brothers 
either  found  work  under  men  who  were  fair,  or 
they  learned  to  endure  control  and  discipline  un- 
der a  "boss,"  which  was  probably  what  they 
needed.  The  girls  grew  to  have  a  care  for  their 
father's  and  mother's  appearance  and  bought 
them  clothes.  Never  as  long  as  the  mother  lived 
did  her  feeling  of  her  resentment  against  working- 
girls'  clubs  die  out. 

After  her  death,  the  father  and  brothers  agreed 
to  pay  one  of  the  sisters  so  much  each  week  if  she 
would  stay  home  and  keep  the  house.  The  sister 
did  it,  though  it  meant  hours  of  loneliness,  and, 


FINANCIAL  RELATIONS       231 

from  her  point  of  view,  dependence.  She  had 
taken  courses  in  cooking  and  sewing  in  the  club; 
she  had  listened  to  talks  on  sanitation  and  hy- 
giene ;  she  had  learned  the  value  of  money  through 
the  management  of  her  own  wages.  She  created 
for  that  family  a  far  better  home  than  it  had  ever 
known  under  the  shiftless,  thriftless  management 
of  an  undisciplined  mother. 

The  daughter  was  able  to  pay  more  rent  from 
the  money  given  to  support  the  house,  and  the 
pride  and  self-respect  of  the  family  were  greatly 
increased  by  the  possession  of  a  parlor,  which  was 
furnished  on  the  installment  plan  out  of  the  week- 
ly sum  paid  to  the  sister.  The  home  became  a 
social  center  for  the  friends.  The  boys  bring 
even  their  girl  friends  to  their  home,  because  it 
possesses  more  attractions  than  any  other  place 
to  which  they  have  access.  A  banjo  lies  on  top 
of  a  piano — hired — and  two  of  the  boys  take 
music  lessons.  In  a  family  of  seven  wage-earn- 
ers, even  though  the  wages  of  each  may  be  small, 
the  combined  income  is  large  in  proportion  to  the 
standards  of  outlay,  and  secures  more  than  com- 
fort, if  rightly  managed. 

In  this  family  a  home  maintained  at  a  social 
level  is  of  greater  importance  than  clothes,  and  all 
work  to  keep  it.  Sacrifices  are  made  to  buy  things 
for  the  home  by  every  member  of  the  family. 


232    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

The  sisters  are  to  these  brothers  the  finest  type 
of  women,  and  no  girl  whom  they  meet  quite 
comes  to  their  level.  The  sisters  will  never 
marry.  The  home,  the  father  and  brothers  fill 
their  cup  of  interest.  There  is  still  a  latent  sus- 
picion that  men  are  non-dependable,  and  they 
must  be  in  a  position  to  meet  emergencies ;  the  un- 
just "boss"  may  appear  at  any  time,  and  they  may 
be  needed.  Their  brothers  are  a  trust  and  must 
be  guarded. 

A  visit  was  made  to  a  home  in  which  a  girl  of 
sixteen  was  dying  of  tuberculosis.  The  plaint 
of  the  mother,  even  in  the  presence  of  the  girl, 
was,  "She  was  such  a  good  child.  She  always 
brought  home  her  envelope  unopened."  To  the 
visitor  this  was  at  the  time  incomprehensible,  as 
the  advantages  of  the  envelope  to  her  were  two- 
fold, that  it  could  be  opened  as  well  as  closed. 
The  child  had  worked  nearly  three  years,  had 
been  paid  her  wages  in  a  sealed  envelope,  which 
she  always  gave  to  her  mother  as  she  received  it. 
This  is  the  measure  of  goodness  for  husband  and 
child  in  thousands  of  working-men's  homes.  This 
mother  was  unconsciously  brutal.  Whether  from 
lack  of  sensitiveness,  or  because  of  a  life  spent  in 
fighting  just  homelessness  and  hunger,  to  the  very 
last  hour  of  her  child's  life  her  moan  was,  "What 
will  I  do  without  her  wages?" 


FINANCIAL  RELATIONS       233 

Xot  once  did  that  little  girl  hear  her  mother 
give  expression  to  any  sense  of  personal  loss  for 
her  companionship.  The  child  herself  became 
weighed  down  with  the  sense  of  responsibility, 
and  resented  the  lack  of  strength  because  it  added 
to  her  mother's  burdens.  This  was  her  regret, 
the  only  thing  she  mentioned :  "I  wish  I  could 
have  helped  mother  till  the  others  grew  up.  I've 
cost  such  a  lot  being  sick  so  long  and  not  earning 
anything."  That  was  her  estimate  of  life  at  six- 
teen. 

A  son  went  wrong  in  that  family,  and  as  the 
time  approached  for  his  return  home,  the  mother 
moved,  lest  he  should  be  annoyed  by  questions 
and  comments  on  his  absence  by  neighbors.  No 
power  could  be  brought  to  bear  on  that  mother  to 
make  her  move  that  the  daughter  might  sleep  in  a 
room  having  an  outside  window.  One  influence 
came  within  the  range  of  her  experience,  the  other 
was  beyond  her  comprehension,  and  her  daughter 
died  in  an  absolutely  dark,  unventilated  bedroom, 
in  which  she  had  slept  eight  years. 

She  was  a  dainty  girl,  in  spite  of  the  bad  taste 
with  which  she  dressed,  this  second  victim.  She 
floated,  rather  than  walked,  and  her  cheeks  were 
like  carnations.  The  girls  in  the  club  all  liked 
her,  and  their  young  men  friends  at  the  receptions 
showed  at  once  how  attractive  they  found  this 


234    LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

girl.  She  was  reticent  as  to  her  affairs,  except 
in  the  question  of  work.  When  out  of  work,  she 
did  not  hesitate  to  speak  of  it  and  ask  to  be  re- 
membered if  any  of  the  club  members  knew  where 
she  could  get  work.  At  last  she  came  quietly  one 
morning  to  the  director  and  said  the  doctor  told 
her  she  must  stop  working  for  three  months.  The 
expression  in  her  eyes  filled  the  listener  with  fear. 
In  a  voice  that  trembled,  she  said :  "I  am  the  only 
one  working.  Mother  has  a  baby  and  cannot 
work,  and — and" — her  voice  lowered  and  her 
eyes  fell — "my  father  will  not  be  home  for  three 
months  from  last  Monday.  He  got  into  trouble. 
He  would  not  if  he  had  been  sober,"  she  added, 
in  proud  defence.  Two  months  later  the  end  was 
near,  and  the  girl  knew  it.  All  that  could  be 
done  under  the  conditions  had  been  done.  It  was 
little,  for  an  unreasonable,  drunken  mother  had  to 
be  reckoned  with  all  the  time.  She  would  stand 
railing  against  the  girl  for  not  going  to  work 
when  the  girl  could  not  walk  across  the  floor  for 
lack  of  strength.  The  girl  was  under  eighteen, 
and  her  mother  was  the  controlling  power  in  her 
life. 

One  of  the  young  men  who  had  been  fre- 
quently a  guest  at  the  club  receptions  worked  in 
an  office  near  the  girl's  home.  He  passed  one  day 
as  she  sat  by  the  window,  and  she  saw  him.    "If 


FINANCIAL  RELATIONS       0.3$ 

he  knew  where  I  lived,  he'd  come  in  and  see  me," 
she  said  with  a  smile,  full  of  friendship  as  the 
young  man  turned  down  the  street.  "I'll  run 
after  him.  I  know  he  would  like  to  see  you.  He 
asked  about  you  at  the  club  last  night."  She 
clutched  convulsively  at  her  visitor's  hand,  say- 
ing: "Oh,  don't!  I  wouldn't  for  the  world  have 
him  see  this  place."  She  closed  her  eyes,  after  a 
searching  glance  about  the  room.  Of  course,  the 
mother  broke  out  in  wailing  about  how  hard  she 
tried  to  do  for  the  children  and  how  ungrateful 
they  were — ashamed  of  their  home. 

The  girl  gathered  her  strength  and  sat  up,  her 
eyes  blazing  with  indignation.  "Mamma,  I'm 
dying.  I'll  not  be  here  another  week.  There  are 
three  more  girls;  I  don't  want  them  to  live 
through  what  I  have."  Slowly,  solemnly,  she  con- 
tinued :  "You  have  not  been  good.  Papa  earned 
good  wages,  enough  to  keep  us  all  comfortable ; 
you  know  what  you  did  with  the  money.  He 
stopped  giving  it  to  you,  and  you  got  what  you 
wanted  on  credit.  You  kept  that  up.  You  know 
what  happened  to  him.  I  went  to  work.  You 
know  what  you  did  with  my  money.  I  could  not 
keep  it  from  you  even  when  I  knew  the  little  ones 
were  hungry,  for  you  beat  me  and  took  it,  unless 
I  had  spent  it  for  groceries  and  meat  and  coal  be- 
fore  I   came   home   pay-day.     I  heard  what  the 


236     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

doctor  said,  that  I  was  dying  because  I  have  not 
had  food  and  have  to  sleep  in  that  hole,  or  holes 
like  it."  She  pointed  to  the  horrible  bedroom. 
"I  am  dying.  You  are  planning  with  the  insur- 
ance money  to  have  a  big  funeral.  Have  your 
own  friends,  but  not  one  of  the  girls  from  the 
club  or  their  friends,  even  when  I  am  dead.  I 
don't  want  them  to  come  here.  Promise  me," 
she  panted  to  her  visitor,  "that  you  will  not  let 
them  come."      The  promise  was  given. 

The  mother  was  shrieking,  whether  from  grief, 
or  rage,  or  remorse  the  visitor  could  not  deter- 
mine.   That  night  death  came. 

The  girl  was  buried  from  the  church  she  at- 
tended. When  the  club  members  were  requested 
not  to  go  to  the  house,  there  was  scarcely  con- 
cealed indignation.  "Did  she  ever  ask  you  to 
call  on  her  when  she  was  well?"  There  was  no 
assent.  "Have  you  any  right  to  intrude  there 
when  she  is  silent?  The  church  is  open  to  all." 
No  comment  was  made.  At  the  church  early  in 
the  morning  the  young  men  and  women  friends 
met.  The  mother  could  not  even  that  morning 
hold  herself  in  control.  The  girl's  secret  was  out, 
and  a  great  sympathy  was  added  to  the  love  her 
friends  bore  her.  Her  memory  was  an  incense 
because  of  what  her  life  must  have  been.  Her  un- 
conscious unselfishness,  her  devotion  to  her  little 


FINANCIAL  RELATIONS       237 

brothers  and  sisters,  was  revealed  to  them  when 
they  saw  her  mother.  Good  fathers  and  moth- 
ers found  new  expressions  of  affection  for  awhile 
at  least,  while  the  sharpness  of  contrast  stood  out 
between  the  dead  girl's  parents  and  their  own,  her 
life  and  theirs. 

The  girl  who  presents  the  most  difficult  prob- 
lem in  club  life  is  the  one  whose  social  impulses 
are  dominant.  Xoise,  activity,  excitement,  seem 
inseparable  from  her  presence.  This  type  of  girl 
arouses  enthusiastic  friends.  She  leads  because 
she  is  daring;  because  she  does  not  in  any  ex- 
perience question  results.  One  such  girl  had  been 
studied  for  months.  There  was  a  superficial  re- 
sponse to  the  efforts  to  win  her  regard,  but  the 
response  was  too  transparent  not  to  be  under- 
stood. The  girl  would  speak  to  any  man  who 
looked  at  her.  One  day  she  was  playing  "tag" 
with  the  other  girls  in  front  of  the  factory  where 
she  worked.  A  rag-picker  pushing  a  cart  made 
some  remark  as  he  passed.  The  girl,  Molly,  gave 
a  spring  and  alighted  on  the  man's  shoulders  like 
a  cat.  She  clung  there.  He  began  to  run,  but 
he  could  not  throw  her  off.  She  twined  her  fingers 
in  his  hair,  made  him  turn  back  and  carry 
her  to  the  place  where  her  shrieking,  laughing 
companions  stood.  She  sprang  off.  Still  holding 
the  man,  she  made  him  get  down  on  his  knees  on 


238    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

the  curb  to  the  girls  and  apologize.  Like  a  bird 
she  flew  to  the  place  where  he  had  dropped  his 
push-cart,  and,  pumping  the  handle  up  and  down 
to  make  the  bells  jingle,  she  brought  it  back  to  the 
man,  still  exhausted  by  his  unwonted  exertions, 
and  with  a  mocking  bow  placed  the  handle  of  the 
cart  in  his  hand.  Then  she  stood  up  straight  and 
ordered  him  to  move  on,  adding:  "If  you  ever 
show  your  nose  around  here  again,  you'll  get  more 
than  you  got  this  time."  The  man  ran  as  if  for 
his  life. 

Molly  then  turned  and  saw  the  friend  whom  she 
had  promised  she  would  be  more  quiet  on  the 
street.  Her  face  crimsoned  as  she  came  toward 
her.  "I  could  not  help  it.  You  don't  know  what 
he  said.  He  won't  never  speak  to  another  girl 
minding  her  own  business  as  he  spoke  to  us.  I 
won't  tell  you  what  he  said ;  it  was  too  bad."  The 
girl  was  about  seventeen  years  old.  She  had 
cut  off  her  hair,  and  it  was  bleached.  She 
wore  the  gayest  hats,  which  only  served  to  em- 
phasize the  poverty  and  shabbiness  of  the  rest  of 
her  clothes.  One  day  she  passed  her  friend's 
house  without  a  jacket.  She  ran,  holding  her 
hands  under  her  arms.  Her  jacket  had  been 
bought  with  money  earned  by  working  overtime, 
a  result  secured  by  the  most  persistent  effort  and 
argument. 


FINANCIAL  RELATIONS       239 

Now  the  jacket  was  gone,  and  the  slack  season 
coming.  As  five  o'clock  approached,  the  girl's 
self-appointed  guardian  took  her  station  at  the 
window  to  watch  for  the  girl  on  her  way  home. 
She  came  skipping  along,  slapping  her  arms  to 
keep  warm.  She  entered  the  house  reluctantly  in 
response  to  the  call,  "Where  is  your  jacket, 
Molly?" 

"I  ain't  cold.     I  ain't  a  bit  cold." 

"Where  is  your  jacket?" 

"Really  and  truly,  I  ain't  cold.  I'm  thin,  but 
I  don't  feel  the  cold  as  much  as  other  girls.  I 
ain't  a  mite  cold." 

It  was  impossible  for  the  girl  to  stand  still.  She 
was  shivering  with  cold,  and  her  teeth,  which  were 
beautiful,  were  chattering.  After  a  time  the  ex- 
planation was  given. 

There  were  five  in  family.  The  girl's  mother, 
a  stepfather  about  fifteen  years  younger  than 
the  mother,  a  brother  one  year  younger  than 
the  girl,  and  a  feeble-minded  sister  of  fourteen. 
The  girl  was  the  only  regular  wage-earner  in  the 
family.  The  brother  was  a  worthless  fellow,  who 
bore  every  evidence  of  degeneracy  and  rarely 
worked.  The  stepfather  drank,  and  worked  only 
occasionally.  Molly  earned  six  dollars  a  week, 
except  in  the  slack  seasons,  two  a  year,  when  she 
earned  about  three  dollars  a  week  for  four  weeks 


24o    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

each  time.  She  began  working  when  she  was 
fourteen,  and  had  never  kept  back  one  penny  of 
her  wages.  Her  mother  had  bought  her  new 
hats,  but  in  all  her  life  no  other  new  garment  ex- 
cept the  jacket  had  ever  been  bought  for  her.  She 
never  asked  any  questions  about  the  money,  but 
she  supposed  the  rent  was  paid.  When  she 
reached  home  the  night  before  everything  was  on 
the  sidewalk,  and  her  feeble-minded  sister  was 
watching  them.  The  jacket  was  the  only  thing 
owned  on  which  money  could  be  raised;  it  was 
pawned.  "Molly,  may  I  call  on  your  mother?" 
A  reluctant  consent  was  given. 

The  home  now  was  in  a  rear  basement,  the  ceil- 
ing just  above  the  level  of  the  yard.  The  mother 
and  husband  occupied  the  bedroom;  Molly  and 
her  sister  slept  on  a  narrow  lounge  covered  with 
Brussels  carpet,  every  spring  broken.  It  was  a 
series  of  humps.  It  was  impossible  to  sit  on  it. 
In  reply  to  a  question,  the  mother  acknowledged 
that  no  provision  was  made  to  make  it  more  com- 
fortable. The  brother  slept  on  the  floor.  The 
rooms  were  dirty  and  overcrowded.  Food  was  of 
necessity  poor,  and  because  of  the  mother's  indif- 
ference and  ignorance,  was  poorer  than  it  need 
have  been. 

This  was  what  Molly  received  for  six  dollars  a 
week.      The  moment  the  mother  knew  who  the 


FINANCIAL  RELATIONS      241 

visitor  was,  she  began  abusing  the  girl.  One  spe- 
cial cause  of  offense  was  the  keeping  back  of  over- 
time money  to  buy  a  new  jacket.  She  evidently 
imagined  that  she  did  not  get  all  the  girl's  money 
every  week.  When  it  was  pointed  out  to  her 
that  the  new  jacket  had  paid  half  a  month's  rent, 
she  refused  to  be  mollified,  because  the  money  paid 
for  it  would  have  paid  the  rent  for  a  month  and  a 
half.  Of  course,  this  extra  money  would  have 
gone  like  the  regular  wages  if  it  had  been  given 
to  the  woman. 

The  walls  were  covered  with  pretty  advertising 
cards  and  pictures  cut  from  papers.  Not  a  vul- 
gar nor  ugly  picture  was  on  the  walls.  "Who  put 
up  those  pictures?"  "Molly.  Shure,  that's  all 
she's  good  for  when  she's  home,  a-cutting  and 
putting  up  these  things."  This  was  one  more 
charge  against  the  girl.  Evidently  the  girl  gave 
her  wages,  and  gave  them  willingly;  but  that 
ended  her  interest  in  her  home  and  measured  the 
mother's  in  her. 

It  was  decided  to  move  the  family  into  one  of 
the  model  tenements  and  furnish  a  room  for  the 
girl  and  her  sister,  paying  the  difference  in  rent 
for  one  year,  to  see  what  the  result  would  be  in 
health  and  morals  in  that  family.  When  the 
proposition  was  made  one  evening  to  Molly,  her 
face  lighted  and  she  emitted  a  sigh  of  perfect  con- 


242     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

sent.      But  the  light  died  out,  and  an  expression 
of  almost  self-pity  supplanted  it. 

"No,  I  must  not  let  you  do  it.  It  would  be 
lovely  to  have  a  room  for  Katie  and  me  alone.  I 
must  not  let  you  do  it."  She  was  silent  for  some 
minutes;  then,  with  eyes  cast  down,  she  said 
in  a  quiet  voice  that  indicated  that  persuasion  was 
useless:  "I  know  them  houses.  They're  awful 
nice.  I'd  like  to  live  in  them.  They're  awful  par- 
ticular. They  won't  let  no  noisy  people  in.  They 
make  them  move  right  out."  Then  slowly,  with 
burning  cheeks,  she  said  in  barely  distinct  tones : 
"Mamma  is  noisy  sometimes,  and  when  she's 
noisy  she  gets  into  fights  with  people.  There  ain't 
no  use  of  moving  in  there ;  they'd  not  let  us  stay. 
Then,  Billy" — the  stepfather — "and  I  fight.  I 
never  speaks  to  him,  excepts  when  he  speaks  ugly 
to  Katie  or  mamma.  He's  drunk  a  lot  now,  most 
all  the  time,  and  then  he's  ugly  to  them.  He  ain't 
to  me,  'cos  he  knows  I'd  break  his  head;  but  he 
is  to  them,  and  then  I  has  to  shut  him  up.  I  ain't 
spoke  to  him  since  he  struck  mamma,  just  after 
they  was  married." 

"But  your  wages  give  him  a  home  and  food." 
"Yes,  I  know  it,  but  I  can't  help  that,  'cos  he's 
married  to  mamma  and  must  be  where  she  is." 
There  was  silence  again,  and  then  the  girl  contin- 
ued :  "Mamma  didn't  do  it  so  much  till  she  mar- 


FINANCIAL  RELATIONS      243 

ried  him ;  she's  worse  now.  I  wish  I  was  dead ;" 
and  the  head  of  many  shades  was  buried  with  the 
limp,  "frowzled"  feathers  in  the  sofa  cushion. 
"No,  I  can  earn  enough  to  keep  them  where  they 
are.  I  must  not  move ;  but  it  would  be  lovely,"  she 
added  with  a  sob. 

A  couple  of  weeks  later  she  came  in  the  evening. 
It  was  raining  hard.  After  a  moment's  silence, 
she  announced,  with  shining  face:  "We  have  the 
loveliest  baby  at  our  house,  born  last  night 
week.  I  wanted  to  tell  you  before,  but  I  had  to 
do  the  work  night  and  morning.  He's  lovely." 
She  fussed  at  her  pocket  and  brought  out  a  pair 
of  baby  shoes  of  worsted.  "I  got  them  with  some 
money  I  earned  overtime.  You  say  I  ought  to 
get  what  I  want  with  that  money."  The  eyes  of 
the  hostess  followed  the  lines  of  Molly's  dress  to 
her  feet.  Her  swollen,  purple  foot  was  seen 
through  the  broken  upper  of  her  shoe.  Molly 
was  looking  with  pride  and  love  at  the  tiny  shoes 
on  her  knee.  "I  named  the  baby  Willie,  and  I'm 
his  godmother,"  she  added  with  pride,  without 
the  slightest  conception  of  the  relation  between 
"Billy"  and  "Willie." 

"Billy?  Oh,  he's  drunk;  been  drunk  a  week. 
I  ain't  let  him  in  yet ;  I'm  goin'  to  wait  until  the 
baby's  bigger  and  mamma's  up.  She'll  let  him 
in,"  she  added,  with  disgust. 


244    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

Matters  grew  worse  with  the  advent  of  the  new 
baby,  for  Molly  had  to  fight  with  her  mother  to 
get  it  cared  for.  At  last  it  died,  to  Molly's  pa- 
thetic grief.  The  mother  had  consented  to  Katie's 
removal  to  an  institution,  where  she  could  receive 
care  and  training.  Molly  was  persuaded  she  owed 
a  duty  to  herself.  No  impression  was  made  un- 
til her  mother  had  been  arrested  twice.  Then 
Molly  consented  to  leave  home.  It  was  deemed 
best  that  she  should  contribute  part  of  the  rent  to 
insure  her  mother  a  home  and  to  maintain  a  nat- 
ural human  tie.  Molly  did  this  for  three  years. 
Then  she  married  a  man  controlling  a  good  busi- 
ness. Molly  is  a  quiet,  devoted  wife.  She  mar- 
ried a  man  old  enough  to  be  her  father.  When 
the  wisdom  of  this  was  questioned,  she  said,  with 
emphasis  and  a  nod  of  her  curly  head  :  "No  young 
man  for  me,  thank  you.    Look  at  Billy !" 

It  was  Friday  morning — a  warm,  sultry  morn- 
ing in  August.  The  bell  rang.  A  mother  in 
black  and  a  young  daughter  of  eighteen  were  in 
the  reception-room.  The  daughter  had  evidently 
been  crying.  "I've  come  to  tell  yer  that  Annie 
can't  go  to  the  country  to-morrow.  She's  sick'm. 
She's  cried  all  night.  Her  brother  was  dis- 
charged'm.  He  do  be  havin'  a  bad  man  for  a 
'boss.'  He's  discharged'm,  and  Annie  can't  go 
to  the  country  with  the  girls  to-morrow.     I  can't 


FINANCIAL  RELATIONS      245 

spare  her  wages.  It's  all  I  got.  Shure,  if  I 
could  get  work  in  washin',  or  anything  to  do,  I'd 
do  it,  but  I  can't'm.  I'll  look  all  the  week;  and 
the  boy'll  get  somethin',  perhaps.  She  can't  go 
this  week;  will  yer  let  her  go  next?  Shure,  the 
rent  is  due,  and  her  wages  is  all  I  got  for  three  of 
us.  Yer  can  go  to  work  to-day,  even  if  it  be  a  bit 
late,  and  yer  can  go  next  week  to  the  country." 

"Oh,  mamma!  the  girls  talk  nothing  but  coun- 
try.   I  can't  go  to-day,"  was  the  sobbing  response. 

The  girl  did  not  go  that  summer.  There  was 
no  room  for  her  until  September.  By  that  time 
the  work  at  the  factory  had  increased  and  not  one 
girl  could  be  spared.  Patiently  Annie  com- 
mented: "It  wouldn't  be  any  good  if  they  could 
spare  me.  My  brother  is  out  of  work  yet.  He's 
awfully  unlucky." 

The  quiet  heroism  of  thousands  of  working 
girls  can  be  appreciated  only  by  those  who  become 
familiar  with  their  lives  in  the  natural  intercourse 
of  club  life.  There  is,  of  course,  the  other  type 
of  girl — the  girl  who  insists  on  spending  the  ma- 
jor portion,  if  not  all,  of  her  wages  for  clothes; 
who  assumes  no  responsibility  for  the  family,  and 
who  has  conceded  to  her  the  right  to  spend  her 
money  for  clothes.  She  would  make  life  most 
uncomfortable  if  she  were  compelled  to  share 
what  she  earned,  even  when  the  family  live  under 


246    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

conditions  that  make  the  home  merely  a  place  of 
shelter — conditions  that  make  even  decency  im- 
possible. The  fathers  and  mothers  seemingly 
have  no  rights  that  this  type  of  girl  feels  she  is 
bound  to  respect.  When  such  girls  marry,  the 
mothers  will  do  the  washing  for  their  daughters, 
hold  the  menial  relation,  and  neither  mother  nor 
daughter  questions  the  justice  of  the  relation. 
Sometimes  the  daughter  will  pay  the  mother  for 
doing  the  washing,  "to,"  as  she  expresses  it,  "help 
her  mother  out."  Such  families  usually  cannot 
be  helped  through  any  influence  but  the  evolution 
that  comes  through  environment  and  neighbor- 
hood development.  There  is  a  superficial  differ- 
ence in  the  social  development  of  such  parents  and 
children.  The  parents  concede  the  higher  posi- 
tion to  their  children,  and  the  children  take  it  as  a 
matter  of  right. 

The  wages  of  skilled  workmen  enable  them  to 
keep  their  children  in  school  until  they  are  six- 
teen or  seventeen  years  old,  if  the  children  will 
stay.  These  fathers  can  support  their  families, 
but  not  dress  them  as  they  desire.  The  girls  go 
to  work  for  the  sole  purpose  of  dressing  better 
than  their  fathers  could  dress  them.  This  in- 
dulgence creates  false  standards,  and  is  a  serious 
blot  on  the  American  working-man's  life.  It  pre- 
vents marriage.     Both  young  men  and  young  wo- 


FINANCIAL  RELATIONS       247 

men  understand  that  the  wages  of  one  cannot  buy 
luxuries  for  two  that  the  wages  used  for  one 
bought.  The  army  of  clerks  on  small  salaries  in- 
crease yearly.  This  class,  through  association, 
develop  tastes  and  standards  of  living  that  make 
impossible  the  establishment  of  homes  on  their  in- 
comes and  at  the  same  time  the  continued  in- 
dulgence of  developed  tastes.  No  type  of  family 
develops  less  that  adds  to  the  wealth  and  attain- 
ment of  the  country  than  this  type.  The  children 
are  selfish ;  they  marry ;  they  discover  that  the 
wages  that  bought  clothes  to  suit  the  extravagance 
of  one  is  wholly  inadequate  to  support  a  family. 
Discouragement,  friction,  ennui  follow,  and  life 
becomes  a  grind,  without  hope,  without  inspira- 
tion. The  second  family  slips  backward,  and  it  is 
but  two  generations  from  shirt  sleeves  to  shirt 
sleeves,  with  this  difference,  that  the  arms  covered 
by  the  shirt  sleeves  of  the  third  generation  lack 
the  muscles  of  the  first,  as  the  spirit  lacks  its  moral 
fiber.  It  is  this  type  of  family  that  keeps  alive  the 
most  vexing  of  social  problems.  The  skilled 
working-man's  family,  the  family  of  the  small 
salaried  men,  present  the  most  difficult  problems 
not  only  in  the  use  of  money,  but  the  use  of  time. 
Their  daughters  are  often  far  more  helpless  than 
the  daughters  of  men  of  wealth.  During  their 
school  days,  except  in  the  exceptional  home,  they 


a48    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

are  not  trained  to  do  housework;  do  not  learn  to 
sew.  As  soon  as  school  days  end,  office  or  store 
work  begins,  and  then  there  is  no  time  to  learn 
the  household  arts.  If  in  these  homes  the  money- 
saving  value  of  time  were  taught,  independence 
and  freedom  impossible  in  wage-earning  would 
be  secured;  the  standards  of  life  would  be  the 
essentials,  not  the  non-essentials,  that  so  often  rob 
life  of  what  is  best  and  most  valuable. 

Hundreds  of  girls  become  wage-earners  be- 
cause they  dislike  housework.  Anything  else  is 
preferable.  Dean  Gill,  of  Barnard  College,  New 
York,  in  an  address  recently  delivered,  said  there 
were  three  types  of  college  girl:  The  girl  who 
never  could  learn  any  of  the  arts  of  home-mak- 
ing. She  advised  that  that  girl  be  allowed  to 
choose  a  career,  and  that  men  make  no  attempt  to 
interfere  with  it.  The  girl  who  had  in  her  the 
latent  qualities  that,  if  developed,  would  make  her 
a  home-maker.  Such  a  girl  it  might  be  wise  to 
keep  home  for  one  year  between  Sophomore  and 
Junior  year.  And  the  third  girl  had  the  home- 
making  gifts  so  well  developed  naturally  that  no 
amount  of  college  training  would  modify  them. 
This  classification  holds  good  of  the  daughters  of 
men  earning  small  salaries,  wages,  and  no  wages. 

As  the  Domestic  Science  department  is  devel- 
oped in  our  public  schools,  the  homes  of  working 


FINANCIAL  RELATIONS       249 

men  of  the  better  class  will  benefit  by  it.  This  dis- 
taste of  housework  will  disappear,  because  it  will 
have  gained  a  place  equal  in  value  to  geography 
and  mental  arithmetic,  and  these  will  have  value 
because  a  knowledge  of  them  adds  to  the  home- 
maker's  ability. 

There  are  homes  of  thrift  and  order  where  all 
must  be  wage-earners ;  homes  where  the  claims  of 
parents  on  the  wages  of  children  are  conceded. 
There  is  a  bank  account,  but  on  this  the  children 
have  no  claim,  no  matter  how  much  of  their  wages 
may  have  gone  into  it,  or  how  much  educational 
opportunity  they  may  have  lost  because  its  de- 
mands have  been  paramount.  When  the  children 
marry  they  establish  homes  without  any  or  very 
little  help  from  their  parents.  They  do  not  ex- 
pect it.  Home,  food,  clothes  have  been  given 
them ;  all  claims  have  been  met.  They  are  as  free 
as  their  parents  when  they  began.  Usually  there 
is  a  gift  of  a  piece  of  furniture  or  table  linen ;  but 
money  to  start  a  new  bank  account  is  not  expected. 
Without  doubt,  much  of  the  inability  to  use 
money  to  prepare  for  future  emergencies  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  financially  the  new  home-makers 
from  these  homes  are  infants  in  practical  expe- 
rience. The  marvel  is  that  they  keep  homes  as 
well  as  they  do,  and  meet  the  future  as  well  as 
they  do  without  planning  to  meet  it. 


250    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

The  second  generation  of  this  type  of  thrifty 
families  rarely  carry  the  habits  of  thrift  of  their 
parents  into  their  home-making.  The  new  finan- 
cial freedom  is  a  novelty,  and  presents  in  itself 
enjoyment  that  the  new  home-makers  use.  Here 
and  there  is  a  recovery  from  the  danger  of  extrav- 
agance by  a  young  couple,  but  the  recovery  is 
rarely  so  complete  as  to  repeat  the  restrictions 
that  the  thrift  of  the  parents  compelled  in  their 
homes.  The  new  generation  demand  better 
clothes  and  better  furniture.  Food  and  rent  are 
regulated  to  meet  these  demands. 

One  stands  appalled  sometimes  at  the  degree 
of  vitality,  the  hope  and  the  cheerfulness  that  pre- 
vail in  the  homes  protected  only  by  the  muscles  of 
one  man ;  what  they  can  buy  representing  all  that 
the  home  may  have.  There  is  no  spirit  of  reck- 
lessness; there  is  no  failure  to  comprehend  the 
slight  protection  a  husband  and  father  can  give, 
though  he  be  skillful ;  but  there  is  a  sublime  con- 
fidence in  the  future.  Though  familiar  with  suf- 
fering, if  not  personally,  then  sympathetically, 
with  full  knowledge  of  what  sickness  and  death 
bring  to  other  unprotected  homes,  such  men  and 
women,  and  there  are  thousands,  live  from  youth 
to  and  through  age  cheerfully,  happily,  without 
any  financial  safeguard  except  against  Potter's 
Field.     This  weekly  insurance  is  kept  up;  the 


FINANCIAL  RELATIONS       251 

family  live  cheerfully,  gayly,  sometimes  to  the 
end. 

One  result  of  doling  out  small  sums  to  young 
wage-earners,  whether  thrift  or  necessity  is  re- 
sponsible, is  disastrous,  especially  disastrous  for 
young  girls.  It  has  seemed  to  the  writer  that  if 
mothers  and  fathers  could  be  brought  to  a  realiz- 
ing sense  of  its  dangers,  they  would  endure  hun- 
ger rather  than  have  their  daughters  exposed  to 
it.  After  all,  it  could  be  averted  by  making  a  di- 
vision of  the  money  spent  for  dress.  Girls  are 
often  dressed  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  sums 
they  earn,  if  a  fair  division  of  their  wages  were 
made,  if  the  dignity  of  the  daughters  was  pro- 
tected by  any  degree  of  independence  financially. 
Of  course  this  disproportionate  use  of  money  is 
due  to  false  standards  that  will  only  be  regulated 
when  the  people  on  salaries  learn  to  universally 
live  true  to  the  law  of  proportion  in  their  ex- 
penditures. 

It  seems  to  be  a  fixed  idea  that  a  girl  is  de- 
pendent on  invitations  from  young  men  for  her 
social  pleasures.  If  she  is  not  invited,  it  is  not 
only  her  misfortune,  but  her  fault;  she  should  be 
more  attractive.  On  the  other  hand,  the  young 
man  is  scarcely  any  better  off  than  the  young  girl 
financially,  yet  he  expects,  and  his  world  expects, 
that  he  shall  bear,  not  only  his  own  social  ex- 


252    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

penses,  but  those  of  at  least  one  girl.  His  impulse 
is  to  be  chivalrous,  for  chivalry  is  not  regulated 
by  income  nor  deadened  by  pennilessness. 

It  is  oppressive  at  times  to  see  how  the  lack  of 
money  prevents  the  natural  association  of  young 
men  and  women;  how  often  the  young  men  are 
forced  to  give  up  the  society  of  girls  for  this  rea- 
son. Girls  often  unconsciously  force  invitations. 
As  one  goes  down  the  scale,  the  girls  invite  them- 
selves, where  the  young  men  have  to  bear  the 
expenses.  So  small  a  matter  as  carfare  will  make 
a  girl  thrust  herself  on  a  young  man's  care.  The 
girl  will  not  resent  indifference,  even  discourtesy 
and  neglect,  if  only  her  aim  is  accomplished.  The 
young  men  suffer  the  reflex  of  this  attitude  of 
mind,  and  their  estimate  of  women  is  regulated  by 
these  misconceptions,  and  even  their  manner  as 
husbands  is  regulated  by  this  conception  of  the  re- 
lations of  the  sexes,  and  wife  and  daughters  suffer 
in  consequence. 

The  higher  up  one  goes  in  the  social  scale,  the 
less  evident  is  this  aggressiveness  on  the  part  of 
girls,  and  the  more  natural  relation  of  man  as 
the  suitor  is  apparent.  As  girls  are  brought  more 
familiarly  under  the  guidance  of  women  willing 
to  discuss  the  financial  relations  that  should  be 
maintained  between  the  unmarried  of  both  sexes, 
the  more  careful  girls  become  in  permitting  the 


FINANCIAL  RELATIONS       253 

expending  of  money  by  men  for  their  social  pleas- 
ures ;  especially  so  where  the  limitation  of  a  man's 
resources  is  understood,  or  even  suspected. 

How  to  make  mothers  put  their  daughters  in 
an  independent  position  where  their  pleasures  are 
concerned  is  a  very  important  and  at  the  same 
time  a  very  difficult  question.  When  it  is  a  ques- 
tion, as  it  often  is,  of  the  very  necessities  of  life 
for  a  family  and  the  allowing  of  money  for  the 
pleasure  of  a  fun-loving  daughter,  necessities  bear 
down  the  scale,  even  of  justice,  and  dignity  ceases 
to  have  value.  For  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  girl's  wages,  used  for  her  exclusively,  would 
often  allow  the  exercise  of  independence  in  her 
social  affiliations.  This  it  is  that  makes  Settle- 
ments so  important  in  our  social  life.  Here  boys 
and  girls  do  meet  on  a  platform  of  independence, 
chaperoned  naturally  by  those  who  know  inti- 
mately the  home  surroundings,  the  social  stand- 
ards, the  limitations  of  life  in  the  regions,  and  all 
that  creates  environment,  that  most  positive  fac- 
tor in  the  making  of  character.  The  social  atti- 
tude of  the  young  people  who  grow  up  in  affilia- 
tion with  the  Settlements  is  found  to  differ  greatly 
from  that  of  young  people  untrammeled  by  over- 
sight or  influence  that  develops  dignity. 

The  influence  of  working-girls'  clubs  is  positive 
in  its  effect  on  the  majority  of  the  members.     The 


254     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

girls  are  taught  in  the  clubs  directly  and  indirectly. 
It  is  not  only  in  the  teaching  of  the  home  arts,  but 
through  lectures,  talks,  books  and  contact  with 
women  of  education.  The  members  often  as- 
tonish those  who  know  them  best  by  their  re- 
sponses to  their  opportunities.  This  mental  de- 
velopment makes  them  critical.  The  men  they 
meet  rarely  have  had  their  opportunities,  and  they 
suffer  by  comparison.  The  young  women  often 
find  they  have  larger  interests  and  sympathies ;  far 
clearer  ideas  of  the  responsibilities  of  life;  are 
better  equipped  than  the  men  they  meet.  Every 
girls'  club  shows  members  who  thus  develop, 
Often  they  will  not  marry.  They  are  the  sup- 
port of  one  or  both  parents,  now  too  old  to 
work;  they  help  married  sisters  and  broth- 
ers; they  are  the  prop  and  stay  of  all  the  halt 
and  lame  of  their  families;  wiser  and  bet- 
ter  guides  for  growing  nephews  and  nieces  than 
their  own  mothers  and  fathers.  Frequently 
they  are  the  most  important  helpers  in  club  life, 
exerting  a  positive,  upbuilding  influence.  Yet  one 
always  grows  sad  when  thinking  of  them.  Not 
thriftlessness,  but  unselfishness,  may  leave  them 
penniless  in  old  age.  There  is  no  place  for  them. 
Rarely  is  there  a  corner  to  which  they  are  wel- 
come in  the  tenement  house;  often  even  where 
there  is  love  and  gratitude  there  may  not  be  space. 


FINANCIAL  RELATIONS       <!$$ 

Floor  space  often  regulates  the  expression  of  love, 
where  the  heart  may  have  unlimited  space. 

The  saddest  figure  in  tenement-house  life  is  the 
unmarried  woman  who  can  no  longer  work  and  is 
dependent.  In  her  effort  to  serve  her  people  she 
may  have  played  the  critic,  and  that  is  remembered 
when  her  service  is  forgotten.  It  is  this  type  of 
girl  who  by  instinct  refuses  to  accept  attentions 
that  mean  the  spending  of  money  by  men  who 
cannot  afford  it.  Their  wages  would,  if  used 
for  themselves,  have  given  social  opportunities 
that  did  not  involve  obligations,  but  family  de- 
mands seemed  to  make  such  use  impossible. 
Sometimes  the  fun-loving  sister  will  secure  both 
shares.  One  is  taken  to  a  home  of  her  own ;  the 
other  left  to  carry  the  family  burden,  and  no  one 
questions  why.  If  it  is  unanswered,  it  is  attributed 
to  the  lack  of  attraction  in  the  unmarried  sister. 

There  are  homes  in  the  tenements  where  the 
wages  of  the  earners  make  a  family  income,  in 
which  all  share  equally,  independent  of  the 
amount  contributed.  There  is  a  bank  account.  It 
may  be  in  the  joint  name  of  father  and  mother, 
but  it  is  far  more  commonly  the  unquestioned 
property  of  the  mother.  The  children  look  upon 
this  as  the  protection  of  the  parents  from  de- 
pendence in  old  age,  should  it  not  be  called  upon 
by  illness  or  misfortune.      Such  families  repre- 


256     LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

sent  the  highest  moral  development  in  tenement- 
house  life.  The  children  have  been  trained  to 
appreciate  educational  opportunities,  and  school 
is  through  childhood  an  important  factor  in  life. 
When  the  wage-earning  period  comes,,  night- 
school  advantages  are  appreciated  and  used. 
When  the  work  is  chosen,  some  thought  is  given 
to  the  promise  of  future  wage-earning  powers  by 
the  acquiring  of  skill  in  that  employment.  The 
maximum  wages  possible  at  the  present  time  is  not 
the  controlling  element  in  the  decision.  The  fu- 
ture is  not  sacrificed  to  the  present.  Such  a  home 
is  kept,  no  matter  how  small,  in  a  condition  that 
makes  social  life  in  it  possible. 

Hallways,  street  corners,  store  steps  are  not  the 
only  places  for  the  development  of  the  social  in- 
stincts of  the  members  of  such  families.  After 
marriage  the  family  is  united,  and  home,  though 
it  be  in  the  top  of  a  tenement,  is  the  Mecca  for 
children  and  grandchildren. 

At  the  other  end  of  the  social  scale  in  this  world 
of  workers  is  the  happy-go-lucky  family.  Here 
the  system  of  financial  management  has  its  faults, 
but  much  is  found  tliat  is  better  than  wisdom  in 
money  matters.  Spending  extravagantly  when 
there  is  money,  going  without  cheerfully  when 
there  is  none.  Why,  the  going  without  is  scarcely 
treated  even  with  the  respect  of  making  it  a  sub- 


FINANCIAL  RELATIONS       257 

ject  of  conversation.  The  habit  of  sharing  when 
any  member  has  anything  to  share  becomes  a  fixed 
habit,  and  "mine"  and  "thine"  are  not  in  the  fam- 
ily vocabulary.  The  result  is  a  close  and  inter- 
dependent family  relation,  of  which  the  mother 
is  the  center.  Often  you  will  find  that  this  mother 
has  never  had  any  clothes  that  would  do  to  wear 
on  the  street,  except  to  early  Mass,  if  she  is  a 
Romanist,  or  that  she  rarely  goes  to  church,  if  a 
Protestant,  because  her  clothes  are  not  what  she 
calls  "fit."  Her  life  is  the  gospel  of  unselfishness, 
and  she  reaps  the  reward  of  love.  One  may  fret 
at  the  waste,  resent  the  short-sightedness,  which 
means  ignorance  and  shiftlessness;  but  there  is 
so  much  pleasure  in  these  families,  so  much  that 
means  happiness  in  them,  that  one  even  learns  to 
forget  the  frets.  They  never  grow  beyond  child- 
hood in  worldly  wisdom,  and  childhood  is  always 
attractive.  It  is  so  rich  in  promise.  Happiness 
is  the  cement  of  human  life.  Poverty  does  not 
change  its  power  of  holding  the  members  together 
through  weal  or  woe.  There  is  a  common  in- 
heritance of  memories  that  never  lose  their  power 
of  cohesion  where  love  and  friendship  reign  in 
families. 

The  people  who  do  not  know  the  lives  of  the 
working  people  can  have  no  idea  of  the  extent  to 
which  the  working  men  trust  their  wives.      The 


258     LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

majority  of  working-men's  wives  are  financially 
in  a  far  more  independent  position  than  the  wives 
even  of  capitalists,  where  the  wives  are  without 
an  independent  income.  Not  only  is  the  money 
given  to  the  wives,  but  their  use  of  the  money  is 
unquestioned.  There  is  a  constant  revelation  of 
the  unselfishness  of  these  men.  Children  will  be 
overdressed,  while  the  father  will  not  even  be 
comfortable;  but  there  is  no  complaint,  for  the 
pride  of  the  father  is  gratified.  He,  with  the 
mother,  has  one  standard — clothes.  There  are 
men  who  say  frankly  that  they  would  waste  the 
money  if  it  were  in  their  care;  that  their  wives  se- 
cure far  better  results  than  they  could;  that  the 
practice  of  having  only  carfare,  at  the  most  lunch 
money,  reduces  greatly  the  much  abused  social 
habit  of  "treating."  The  married  man  who  can 
"treat,"  it  is  generally  conceded,  is  not  fair  to  his 
family ;  he  keeps  his  wages  at  their  expense. 

Sometimes  the  observer  marvels  at  the  infinite 
patience  of  many  men.  Their  wives  drift. 
Neither  money  nor  time  is  used  for  their  families. 
A  week's  loss  of  work,  and  there  is  debt ;  a  day's 
sickness,  and  to  its  suffering  is  added  the  knowl- 
edge that  there  is  no  money  in  reserve  to  meet  this 
emergency,  even  though  the  wages  insure  it. 
While  knowing  well  the  cause,  one  resents  the  un- 


FINANCIAL  RELATIONS       259 

just  conditions  that  control  many  marriages 
among  the  young  people  of  the  wage-earning 
class.  The  young  women  rarely  have  the  knowl- 
edge that  will  enable  them  to  do  their  share  in  es- 
tablishing the  home.  The  young  man  contract- 
ing a  marriage  without  the  prospect  of  supporting 
a  home  is  condemned  and  his  bride  pitied;  but 
there  is  little  criticism  if  she  spends  years — years 
that  mean  discomfort  and  waste — in  learning  to 
do  her  part,  if  she  ever  learns. 

The  mental  attitude  of  the  wage-earners  to- 
ward their  income  is  confusing  and  yet  interest- 
ing. In  reply  to  any  question  of  wages,  the  maxi- 
mum sum  is  always  given.  The  question  of  idle 
time  does  not  enter  into  computations  of  the  year's 
possible  income  and  necessary  outlays.  This  holds 
good  before  as  well  as  after  marriage.  Work  may 
last  for  only  forty  weeks  of  the  year,  but  the  other 
twelve,  even  among  intelligent  wage-earners, 
sometimes  are  not  counted  in  their  relation  to  in- 
come. This  perhaps  explains  much  that  is  counted 
as  thriftlessness.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  failure  to  apply 
arithmetic  to  daily  life. 

After  all  is  said,  no  one  who  is  familiar  with 
the  income  of  the  wage-earning  class  can  fail  to 
see  that  the  results  obtained  prove  conclusively 
that  the  use  of  money  in  the  well-regulated  home 


260    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

is  a  fine  art ;  that  many  working-men's  wives  could 
give  post-graduate  courses  in  the  use  of  money  to 
women  who  consider  they  have  the  right  to  teach 
them.  Even  waste  and  misuse  are  regulated  by 
education  and  experience  where  there  is  even  a 
modicum  of  intelligence.  The  second  conclusion  is 
that  thrift  under  certain  conditions  is  a  vice  that 
causes  distinct  deterioration  of  character.  It 
should  be  combated  as  vigorously  as  thriftless- 
ness.  It  can  only  be  done  by  raising  the  standards 
of  living;  by  creating  other  standards  of  value 
than  money. 

But  everywhere  among  the  wage-earning  peo- 
ple the  independence  of  the  wife  in  money  matters 
is  apparent. 

There  are  men  who  are  niggardly  and  who 
hand  out  small  sums  daily,  and  never  recognize 
that  the  wife  has  a  right  to  anything  beyond  food 
and  shelter,  who  grudgingly  buy  clothes  when 
they  must.  These  men  are  despised,  spoken  of 
with  contempt  as  not  being  good  fathers  or  hus- 
bands, and  their  wives  are  openly  pitied.  But  the 
mass  of  working  men  place  their  wives  in  a  per- 
fectly independent  position  by  making  them  the 
absolute  disbursers  of  their  incomes.  The  small 
shopkeepers,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  treat 
their  wives  as  partners.  The  wives  work  with 
them,  sharing  their  knowledge,  their  responsibili- 


FINANCIAL  RELATIONS       261 

ties,  and  appear  as  joint  owner  in  the  bank  ac- 
count. The  wife  usually  is  the  safe  until  the 
money  goes  to  the  bank  account. 

When  a  wife  is  a  good  financial  manager,  she 
is  the  head  of  the  house,  whose  reign  is  never  ques- 
tioned. "Her  children  rise  up  and  call  her  blessed ; 
her  husband  also,  and  he  praiseth  her,"  though 
the  Book  of  Proverbs  may  be  unknown.  This 
financial  independence  of  the  wives  of  working 
men  develops  the  spirit  of  independence  and  ag- 
gressiveness that  so  often  disturbs  and  upsets  the 
plans  of  the  woman  who  would  do  them  good,  and 
is  the  cause  of  the  charge  of  ingratitude  that  is 
often  made  against  the  women  of  the  tenement- 
house  regions.  It  is  scarcely  natural  to  develop 
gratitude  for  efforts  made  in  the  wrong  direction. 
Poverty  has  its  degrees,  as  has  wealth.  There  are 
families  living  in  tenements  whose  conditions  rep- 
resent wealth  when  contrasted  with  that  of  their 
neighbors.  One  fact  remains.  Both  women  do 
not  need  the  same  opportunities,  the  same  help. 
The  student  of  the  management  of  wages  in  a 
tenement-house  home  rapidly  acquires  a  spirit  of 
humility.  While  everywhere  there  is  waste,  there 
are  times  when  money  seems  to  buy  double  the 
amount  that  the  student  thought  possible.  With 
the  wage-earners  '  families,  as  with  all  others, 
the  income  buys  that  which  is  most  desired  by 


a62     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

those  spending  it.  Choice  is  the  master  of  deci- 
sion, even  in  necessities.  What  is  needed  in  the 
wage-earner's  family  is  that  education,  that  op- 
portunity for  development  that  will  make  a  choice 
of  the  highest  things,  those  that  will  mean  a  body 
and  mind  so  nourished  and  cared  for  that  moral 
resistance  is  the  available  capital  of  every  member 
of  the  family  in  time  of  need. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

HOME   STANDARDS. 

The  world  knows  two  aspects  of  involuntary 
poverty :  The  one  inseparable  from  degradation ; 
the  other  picturesque,  appealing  to  the  emotions, 
and  giving  a  field  for  the  play  of  sympathetic 
activity  that  frequently  neglects  to  note  the  results 
it  attains. 

There  are  few  who  discern  that  poverty  is  a 
comparative  term,  and  these  do  not  use  the  word 
in  its  financial  sense  wholly. 

Those  who  know  intimately  the  struggling,  up- 
growing  poor  know  that  the  rich  can  never  give 
the  exquisite  expression  to  love  that  life  at  this 
level  makes  possible.  Who  would  dream  when 
looking  at  the  Hercules,  with  clothes  and  hands 
soiled  by  his  daily  labor,  that  he  is  the  tender  nurse 
of  wife  and  baby ;  that  he  is  hurrying  to  a  house 
cared  for  with  joy.  He  will  wash  dishes,  cook, 
scrub  the  floor,  walk  the  baby  to  sleep,  and  coddle 
and  pet  a  wife  who  from  sheer  loneliness  and 
worry  over  work  undone  may  be  the  harder  to 
please  and  quiet.      All  this,  and  perhaps,  almost 


264    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

certainly,  not  once  will  any  terms  of  endearment 
be  heard,  and,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  no  kiss 
given.  How  one  rebels  and  rejoices  that  love  can 
be  thus  expressed ! 

When  sickness  enters  the  home  of  the  poor 
man,  money  is  not  present  to  relieve  the  able  from 
personal  service,  often  made  more  difficult 
through  ignorance.  Pride  shuts  the  door  to  char- 
ity and  the  burden  is  carried  in  love.  Those  who 
know  life  at  this  level  can  never,  never  lose  faith 
in  the  Eternal  love,  for  they  see  always,  however 
disguised,  the  divine  spark  in  every  human  being. 
The  silence  of  love  thus  expressed,  the  revelation 
of  it  where  least  expected,  makes  the  one  who  wit- 
nesses it  conscious  of  what  power  lies  outside  and 
beyond  and  above  his  own  life,  not  witnessed  to 
the  ear.  Every  day  at  this  level  of  life  in  our 
great  city  it  is  proved  to  the  privileged  that  tender-" 
ness  is  the  winning  element  in  strength;  that 
love  daily,  hourly  here  proves  its  power  of  self- 
abnegation.  Here,  too,  it  fills  its  function  of  in- 
spiration. Days,  weeks,  months,  years  go  by  and 
the  burden  of  moral  weakness  is  borne  with  the 
cloak  of  faith  wrapped  about  its  fears.  When 
so  expressed,  its  loyal  unconsciousness  adds  to  its 
beauty  and  makes  it  an  inspiration  to  all  who  come 
into  its  presence  as  friends ;  the  lips  voice  its  faith, 
the  eyes  alone  reveal  its  fears  even  to  friends. 


HOME  STANDARDS  265 

The  more  intimately  one  comes  into  the  home  cir- 
cle of  the  independent  wage-earners  the  more 
clearly  does  the  disadvantages  of  wealth  stand  re- 
vealed. Life  must  be  lived  so  simply,  the  inter- 
ests of  life  are  so  evident,  that  the  value  of  words 
decreases ;  action  expresses  the  heart  perfectly.  The 
very  services  the  children  render  each  other  train 
them  for  the  family  life  they  will  establish.  The 
baby  tended  by  an  older  brother  and  sister  learns 
to  depend  on  them  for  care,  and  that  dependence 
in  turn  draws  out  a  love  and  responsibility  that 
could  not  have  birth  under  any  other  conditions. 
The  child  who  finds  that  in  pain,  weariness,  suffer- 
ing, a  father  and  mother  alone  share  its  care;  the 
elder  children  who  see  how  naturally  sacrifices  are 
made  for  them,  how  little  the  father  and  mother 
value  themselves,  their  ease,  even  their  comfort, 
learn  to  value  the  love  in  the  home  and  depend 
on  it,  give  love  to  it,  that  money  to  buy  service 
would  bar  out.  The  child  who  sees  parents  make 
sacrifices  to  enlarge  his  opportunities  for  educa- 
tion, seeing  him  as  a  positive  factor  in  his  own 
manhood,  sees  more  than  parental  love  in  such 
sacrifices  and  stands  in  more  than  the  relation  of 
child  to  parents. 

At  the  level  where  charity  and  dependence  are 
large  factors  in  the  home  life,  the  relation  of  par- 
ents  to  children   is  changed   by   their   presence. 


166    LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

Art  has  given  Charity  the  figure  of  a  noble,  be- 
nign woman,  in  the  ample  folds  of  whose  gar- 
ments children  are  protected.  Too  often  in  life 
she  wears  a  short  skirt,  to  make  speed  possible, 
suggesting  in  movements  and  voice  the  need  of 
nervines,  when  she  does  not  seem  to  have  taken 
the  bandage  from  the  eyes  of  Justice  for  her  own 
use,  while  neglecting  to  borrow  her  scales.  Where 
Charity  is  the  welcome  guest,  instinct  is  greater 
than  intelligence  in  the  parental  relation.  The 
home  tie  is  slight ;  children  become  shrewdly  self- 
dependent,  physical  hardships  are  more  easily 
borne,  and  life  is  often  a  mere  matter  of  shelter 
and  food ;  the  animal  alone  is  kept  alive.  This  rep- 
resents a  social  level  as  remote  from  that  of  the  in- 
dependent wage-earner  as  is  represented  between 
the  home's  standards  and  requirements  of  a  family 
living  on  fifteen  hundred  dollars  a  year  and  that 
of  a  family  living  on  fifteen  thousand  dollars  a 
year. 

We  use  the  word  poor  so  carelessly  that  there 
is  confusion  where  absolute  misapprehension  has 
not  developed  as  to  the  character  of  the  largest, 
most  receptive,  most  responsive  and  most  respon- 
sible class  of  citizens  of  New  York.  Politically 
they  have  been  neglected,  until  the  Citizens'  Union 
gave  them  a  formative  part  in  political  decisions. 
Here  and  there  a  score  or  more  independent  work- 


HOME  STANDARDS  267 

ing  men  would  be  found  in  political  organizations, 
because  of  an  active  political  conscience,  always 
hoping  for  better  days,  when  the  city  would  be 
given  its  imperative  rights  without  regard  to  the 
State  or  national  political  complications.  It  was 
a  hopeless  fight,  and  has  sent  into  the  erratic  po- 
litical parties  the  majority  of  the  independent 
working  men  now  in  them.  The  schemes  of  the 
politicians  disgusted  them,  and  new  principals 
seemed  to  be  the  only  hope  for  the  clean-minded 
mind  who  did  its  own  thinking. 

The  great  mass  of  these  independent,  self-re- 
specting, intelligent  working-men  voters  were 
hunted  for  at  election,  but  were  not  counted 
worthy  to  take  a  place  in  the  councils  of  the  polit- 
ically active  because  they  were  feared.  The  Citi- 
zens' Union  recognized  their  value  and  power, 
and  they  have  come  into  their  own  as  citizens.  No 
greater  service  have  the  Settlements  done  the  city 
than  discovering  this  unused  element  in  political 
power  and  centering  it  where  it  is  recognized  as 
the  saving  power  in  municipal  government.  These 
men  stand  at  the  head  of  the  homes  that  reveal 
love — tender,  protecting  inspiring  love — serving 
in  unspoken  unselfishness  to  the  largest  degree. 

Thousands  of  mothers  can  testify  to  the  cheerful 
sharing  by  fathers  in  the  household  burdens  after 
a  day  of  hard  work;  of  cheerful  going  without  ne- 


268     LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

cessities  on  the  part  of  a  father  to  give  more  than 
necessities  to  the  children.  Thousands  of  husbands 
and  fathers  will  note  the  unselfishness  and  wisdom 
of  a  mother  in  caring  for  and  enlarging  the  op- 
portunities for  the  children,  who  are  the  common 
objects  of  love  and  ambition,  and  the  confidence 
and  love  of  the  husband  grows  with  the  years. 
To  the  observer  there  is  at  the  same  time  no 
more  inspiring  and  depressing  revelation  than  the 
parental  love  which  asks  nothing  for  itself,  but 
all  that  life  can  give  for  the  children,  the  visible 
expression  of  their  mutual  love.  Often  there  is 
no  thought  given  to  a  future  of  possible  depend- 
ence. Wages  do  not  make  possible  the  care  of 
the  children  at  the  standards  of  the  parents,  the 
buying  of  an  environment  that  the  experi- 
ence of  intelligent  parents  demands  for  them,  and 
a  bank  account.  The  last  is  desirable,  the  first  de- 
mand imperative.  Faith  is  the  anchor  kept  to  be 
thrown  out  when  the  life  currents  are  running 
toward  the  rocks  of  want  and  dependence.  Noth- 
ing is  kept  back  for  personal  use  by  these  fathers 
and  mothers.  Sometimes  this  very  unselfishness, 
when  unregulated  by  wisdom,  leaves  them  lonely 
and  forsaken  in  old  age.  Those  to  whom  they 
have  given  their  lives  have  by  the  gift  been  placed 
in  social  positions  that  seemingly  bar  out  the  par- 
ents who  made  achievement  possible.    Even  in  the 


HOME  STANDARDS  269 

loneliness  of  old  age  the  parents  rejoice  at  the 
success  and  forget  and  forgive  the  separation. 
The  end  for  which  they  worked  has  been  attained, 
their  children  are  successful,  and  they  still  count 
themselves  nothing  compared  with  their  children. 
It  is  the  independent  wage-earners  who  make 
the  largest  contributions  to  our  wealth,  commer- 
cial greatness,  national  prestige;  yet  the  world, 
counting  wealth  by  dollars,  classifies  these  as  poor. 
They  are  as  far  removed  from  the  incapable,  the 
degraded,  the  vicious,  the  dependent,  the  ignorant 
— who  provide  the  themes  for  books — as  far  re- 
moved from  the  worthless,  the  deficient,  the  men- 
tally, morally  weak,  so  familiar  to  the  people  of 
wealth  who  give  money  or  time,  or  both,  to  lessen 
their  miseries,  as  they  are  in  standard  and  ambi- 
tion from  the  people  counted  wealthy.  The  cost 
of  floor  space  on  which  to  make  a  home  may  make 
them  neighbors  of  the  people  who  are  the  prob- 
lems of  a  great  city ;  they  may  live  in  regions  that 
are  the  laboratory  of  the  student  of  social  and  po- 
litical conditions,  but  they  live  behind  closed 
doors,  bring  up  their  children,  so  far  as  they  can, 
uncontaminated  by  neighborhood  evils,  and  over- 
come their  environment  to  a  surprising  degree. 
There  is  no  word  to  distinguish  them  from  those 
who  make  capital  of  their  poverty,  and  the  world 
loses  much  because  of  the  lack  of  a  term  that 


270    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

would  express  the  class  who  are  the  hope  of  this 
nation,  whose  children  are  the  promise  of  its  es- 
tablished greatness. 

The  very  limitations  that  small  incomes  impose 
on  husbands  and  wives,  strangers  to  social  ambi- 
tions, bring  into  the  relation  an  independence  and 
camaraderie  that  possibilities  of  wealth  would  bar 
out.  When  a  father  and  mother  have  one  object  in 
life,  their  children,  they  have  no  personal  ambi- 
tions; their  minds  run  in  the  same  groove;  they 
live  of  necessity  a  unit.  When  the  aim  is  to  give 
their  children  a  better  education  than  they  had; 
to  place  them  on  a  firmer  foundation  in  the  wage- 
earning  world  than  the  one  on  which  the  father  and 
mother  started ;  to  save  the  children  from  the  con- 
taminating world  as  they  had  to  meet  it,  there  of 
necessity  is  a  welded  interest  that  bars  out  a  world 
of  distractions.  The  world  in  which  such  fathers 
and  mothers  live  may  seem  narrow,  but  the  small- 
ness  of  the  world  makes  the  companionship  the 
closer.  As  one  gets  into  the  inner  circle  of  these 
homes,  the  small  part  that  wealth  plays  in  happi- 
ness is  realized,  and  the  comprehension  of  what 
constitutes  essentials  is  gained.  The  man  who 
knows  the  measure  of  his  wage-earning  power 
does  not  waste  his  nerve  and  vitality  to  earn  more; 
the  family  grow  to  have  fixed  habits  of  expendi- 
ture, and  content  is  attained  that  the  social  strug- 


HOME  STANDARDS  271 

glers  never  know.  The  victim  of  nervous  pros- 
tration is  not  found  in  the  working-man's  world ; 
the  fixed  rate  of  wages  relieves  the  nerves,  but 
exercises  the  muscles  and  the  balance  of  health  is 
kept.  The  exceptions  to  this  happy  attainment 
are  those  whose  mental  or  moral  natures  have  not 
been  adjusted  to  the  happy,  even  life  of  the  skilled, 
sober,  industrious,  thrifty  working-man's  family 
in  New  York. 

The  world  of  wealth  would  find  itself  rejected 
if  it  brought  with  it  into  the  wage-earning  world 
its  moral  standards,  the  rules  of  conduct  are 
so  simple  in  this  world,  the  standards  so 
elemental.  An  aldermanic  candidate  who  in 
his  own  world  is  not  counted  ignorant,  dur- 
ing the  campaign  of  1901  conceived  the  idea, 
which  he  had  never  held  before,  though  this 
was  the  fourth  time  he  had  appealed  to  the  suf- 
frages of  the  people,  that  the  women  were  a  fac- 
tor in  political  success.  He  decided  to  call  on  the 
wives,  mothers  and  sisters  of  the  voters  in  his 
district.  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  his  con- 
clusions after  his  experience.  He  must  have 
gained  wisdom  by  his  experiment,  and  heard  some 
unwelcome  truths.  He  announced  to  one  of  his 
hostesses  that  he  thought  if  he  called  and  showed 
himself  they  might  see  in  him  something  that 
would  persuade  them  that  their  husbands,  fathers, 


272    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

brothers,  or  sons  ought  to  vote  for  him.  It  would 
have  been  interesting  to  have  seen  his  face  when 
more  than  one  hostess  assured  him  that,  having 
seen  him,  she  felt  bound  to  urge  her  husband  to 
vote  for  the  other  candidate.  Or  when  he  was 
told  by  others  that  he  must  understand  how  cer- 
tain he  was  of  defeat,  or  he  would  not  appeal  to 
women.  Still  more  interesting  it  would  have  been 
to  see  him  when  an  outraged  wife  let  down  the 
flood-gates  of  her  wrath  because  she  blamed  him 
for  the  periodic  lapses  from  industry  and  sobriety 
of  which  her  husband  was  guilty.  The  better 
class  of  voters  of  this  candidate's  party  resented 
angrily  the  man  calling  on  their  wives.  The 
root  cause  of  the  indignation  of  the  men  and  wo- 
men it  was  found  was  that  this  man  dared  to  call 
when  the  husbands  were  not  at  home.  In  the 
world  of  work  there  is  no  place  for  social  life  in 
the  day-time,  and  it  argues  ill  for  those  who  in- 
dulge in  it.  The  Metropolitan  Opera  House  in 
the  evening  would  so  shock  the  working  man  and 
his  wife  that  they  would  never  recover  respect  for 
those  who  frequent  it.  A  high-necked  lace  dress 
with  a  low  lining,  worn  in  the  evening  by  one 
from  the  other  world  to  an  East  Side  party, 
brought  out  this  comment:  "Oh!  yes,  she's  all 
right.  They  all  do  it,  the  women;  but  isn't  it 
awful?" 


HOME  STANDARDS 


273 


The  moral  standards  for  men  and  women  in  the 
world  of  work  are  the  same.  The  immoral  man 
is  despised  and  avoided  by  the  women.  A  wo- 
man who  should  maintain  the  smallest  degree  of 
friendship  or  acquaintance  with  a  man  known  to 
be  immoral  would  be  avoided  by  her  neighbors; 
she  would  be  made  to  realize  at  once  the  cause  of 
her  offending. 

A  silly,  pretty  little  woman,  whose  husband  at 
times  was  cruel  and  brutal,  ran  away  from  him 
with  another  man.  No  one  in  the  neighborhood 
could  remember  when  such  a  thing  had  happened 
before,  and  the  neighborhood  resented  it  as  a  dis- 
grace. The  husband's  brutality  was  well  known ; 
he  was  despised  and  ignored  by  the  better  element 
of  men  in  the  neighborhood.  Had  the  wife  gone 
alone,  she  would  have  had  the  support  of  a  re- 
spectable minority,  but  now  the  husband  was  the 
object  of  deep  sympathy.  When  the  wife  was 
found,  and  declared  she  would  gladly  starve  with 
the  partner  of  her  disgrace — and  there  was  a  fair 
prospect  at  the  time  that  she  would — "than  have 
the  best  in  the  land  with  my  husband;  he  has 
kicked  me  out  for  the  last  time,"  she  was  cast  out 
of  the  books  of  remembrance  in  that  neighbor- 
hood. "She  married  him  for  better  or  worse," 
was  the  measure  of  a  wife's  duty  among  these 
wives  and  mothers. 


274    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

The  admiration  of  the  explorer  into  this  world 
of  work  and  homes  grows  with  the  years  for  the 
people  who  make  it,  as  indignation  grows  at  the 
misunderstanding  of  its  limitations,  its  possibili- 
ties, its  beauty  and  greatness.  For  Matthew  Ar- 
nold gave  the  true  definition  of  greatness  when  he 
said  it  was  the  obstacles  overcome,  not  his  attain- 
ments, that  made  a  man  great.  The  explorer 
makes  many  discoveries — some  that  stimulate  and 
surprise,  some  that  puzzle  and  depress.  The  si- 
lence of  love  in  this  world  is  a  revelation. 
Whether  the  terms  of  endearment  are  not  in  the 
language  of  this  world,  or  whether  the  want  of 
leisure  and  privacy  stifle  them,  it  is  difficult  to  de- 
cide. Perhaps  it  is  that  the  language  of  love  is 
learned  in  a  mother's  arms ;  that  when  her  service 
to  her  child  must  be  physical,  when  it  is  but  one 
of  a  thousand  things  demanding  her  care  and 
thought — when  her  muscles  must  serve  unceas- 
ingly— she  has  no  time  to  express  the  love  that 
strengthens  them  by  words.  It  may  be  that  the 
language  of  love  does  not  grow  within  crowded 
walls,  and  that  it  is  forced  to  express  itself  in  ser- 
vice. 

A  man  ranking  high  in  the  intellectual  world 
once  took  for  his  theme,  when  preaching  to  a  com- 
pany of  wage-earners  and  their  wives,  "Home 
Life."     It  was  a  rare  inspiration  that  moved  him 


HOME  STANDARDS 


275 


to  point  out  how  much  was  lost  to  the  home  where 
the  verbal  expression  of  love  was  never  heard.  He 
said  no  higher  inspiration  to  work  his  best 
could  be  given  a  man  than  his  wife's  good-bye  kiss 
in  the  morning;  nor  a  charm  that  would  drive 
away  care,  worry  and  exhaustion  more  perfect 
than  her  welcoming  kiss  when  he  returned  from 
his  work  at  the  close  of  the  day.  He  pictured  the 
feelings  of  the  man  who  found  his  wife  silent  and 
unresponsive  when  he  entered  the  house ;  who  an- 
swered his  query  as  to  what  was  the  matter 
with  "Nothing."  In  his  audience  was  a  wife 
whose  faithfulness  and  intelligence  had  made  her 
husband  far  more  than  he  could  ever  have  been 
without  her,  a  fact  of  which  he  was  fully  con- 
scious; he  was  not  allowed  to  forget  it.  This 
wife  was  deeply  impressed  by  what  she  heard. 
She  was  ignorant  because  of  lack  of  opportunity, 
untruthful  because  she  was  ignorant;  she  could 
not  see  the  relations  of  things.  Vindictive,  be- 
cause in  her  moral  code  you  must  resent  any 
wrong,  real  or  fancied,  by  an  action  that  goes  far 
deeper  than  that  of  the  offender  in  its  effect.  Any- 
thing else  would  be  an  evidence  of  weakness.  She 
expressed  her  contempt  for  one  who  would  for- 
give an  injury,  and  prided  herself  that  she  never 
did.  She  had  enthusiasm,  could  inspire  others, 
and  proved  herself  as  capable  in  leading  them  to 


276    LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

do  wrong  as  to  do  right.  She  was  the  power  in 
her  home,  and  established  its  standard  of  right 
and  wrong  that  gave  motive  to  the  lives  of  her 
children.  This  night  the  speaker  lifted  the  veil. 
There  was  something  that  belonged  in  the  home 
that  she  alone  could  put  there,  and  she  had  not. 
She  resolved  that  she  would  part  from  and  meet 
her  husband  with  a  kiss.  It  is  best  to  let  her  tell 
her  own  story: 

"I  just  made  up  my  mind  I'd  do  it."  No  girl 
of  eighteen  giving  a  confidence  of  a  love  affair 
could  have  shown  more  embarrassment  than  this 
mother  of  wage-earning  children.      "I  did  not 

know  how  I  would  do  it,  or  what would  say, 

but  I  just  made  uo  my  mind  I  would  kiss  him 
when  he  came  home.  I  thought  about  it  all  the 
next  day.  Late  in  the  afternoon  I  made  up  my 
mind.     Of  course,  I  could  not  kiss  him  before  the 

children.      When  it  was  most  time  for  to 

come  home,  I  sent  them  each  on  an  errand  that 

would  keep  them  away  until  long  after got 

home.  I  had  the  table  all  set  and  the  supper 
cooking.  At  last  I  heard  him  come  up  the  stairs. 
My  land !  How  I  trembled !  I  stood  so  that  when 
the  door  opened  he  would  not  see  me,  and  then  I 
just  kissed  him  before  I  had  a  chance  to  think.  He 
staggered  back,  he  was  so  surprised."  She  waited 
while  an  expression  that  should  have  been  habit- 


HOME  STANDARDS  277 

ual  changed  her  shrewd,  hard  face  into  a  loving 
woman's.  "But  I  never  saw  him  look  so  happy," 
she  continued.  "I  made  up  my  mind  I  would  kiss 
him  every  day  when  he  came  home.  I  could  not 
kiss  him  in  the  morning,  for  the  children  were  all 
there,"  she  added  decidedly;  "but  I  can  always 
send  the  little  ones  on  errands  at  night." 

Perhaps  it  was  three  weeks  later  that  she  told 
of  the  climax.  "I  had  a  toothache  all  day;  I  was 
tired  and  cross,  for  I  had  been  washing.  I  stood 
by  the  fire,  making  the  hash.      Kittie  was  setting 

the  table,   when  opened  the  door.     I   did 

not  look  up.  He  stood  in  the  door  a  minute ;  then 
he  asked,  'What's  the  matter,  Jennie?'  'Noth- 
ing.'    I  knew  I  said  it  cross.     I  looked  up  then. 

looked  so  disappointed  that  I  thought  he'd 

cry.      I  just  forgot  the  children,  and  right  before 

them  I  kissed twice.     I  wish  you  could  have 

seen  his  face.  I  burst  out  laughing  when  I  looked 
at  the  two  children.  They  stood  staring  at  us 
with  their  mouths  wide  open.  Do  you  know 
what  I  did?  I  kissed  each  of  them.  I  don't  be- 
lieve I've  kissed  either  since  they  were  babies.  I 
think  they  told  the  big  ones  in  the  front  room 
when  they  came  from  work."      This  experiment 

in  love-making   did   not   continue.      came 

home  drunk  one  night,  and  for  punishment  the 
experiment    was    dropped   and    never    resumed. 


278     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

While  it  lasted,  it  had  a  most  harmonizing  effect 
on  the  whole  family,  and  one  wondered  if  it  had 
been  begun  earlier,  when  the  habit  could  have 
been  easily  fixed,  what  would  have  been  the  result. 

The  mother,  from  a  worldly  point  of  view,  has 
been  most  successful.  The  children  are  in  posi- 
tions where  skill  is  required,  and  wages  seem  to 
depend  on  health  only.  Yet  they  are  not  pop- 
ular; are  selfish  and  unsympathetic.  They  point 
to  their  own  success  as  the  reason  why  every  fam- 
ily should  succeed.  The  family  has  moved  into 
new  environment,  establishing  relations  that  have 
placed  it  several  rounds  higher  than  the  level  at 
which  the  home-making  began ;  but  it  has  no  fixed 
place  in  the  social  world.  The  combined  income 
of  the  five  wages  equals  at  times  two  thousand 
dollars  a  year. 

Not  every  wife  in  this  world  of  silent  love  is  en- 
couraged as  this  wife  was.  Another,  a  gentle, 
quiet  woman,  without  children,  thought  she  would 
try.  "He  sit  so  still  when  he  came  home.  I  bought 
a  flower  and  put  it  on  the  table.  I  have  what  he 
like  best  for  supper,  and  I  wait.  I  listen  over  the 
banister.  When  he  come  near  our  flight,  I  slip 
back  and  wait  in  the  room,  leaving  the  door  open 
so  he  can  see.  When  he  close  the  door  I  go  up 
to  him,  put  mine  arms  around  his  neck  and  kiss 
him.     He  take  my  amis,  shove  me  back  and  say : 


HOME  STANDARDS  279 

'What  the  matter  mit  you  ?  You  crazy  ?'  "  The 
woman  was  crying.  The  three  friends  sat  silent 
a  moment,  and  then  one  said :  "You  haf  no  chil- 
dren," and  the  wife  nodded.  That  was  her  ex- 
planation, and  theirs. 

Perhaps  no  greater  charm  prevails  in  this  world 
of  wage-earners  than  the  attitude  toward  mother- 
hood. There  will  be  found  here  and  there  the 
young  woman  who  rebels  against  it,  who  may  risk 
life  rather  than  assume  the  care  of  a  baby.  When 
one  goes  back  of  this  rebellion  there  is  always 
found  the  influence  of  some  older  woman  who 
has  other  ambitions,  clothes,  pleasure;  who  in- 
fluences, or  tries  to  influence,  the  young  married 
women  she  meets;  a  woman  who  will  even  talk 
freely  to  girls  against  motherhood.  There  is  in 
this  world  of  workers  the  strong  active  public 
sentiment  against  childless  women  that  more  than 
counteracts  this  influence,  and  babies  are  wel- 
comed when  there  is  nothing  but  love  to  greet 
them,  not  much  more  to  feed  them  or  clothe  them ; 
but  they  are  welcomed.  The  training  of  the  chil- 
dren— natural,  not  acquired — to  be  fathers  and 
mothers  has  doubtless  a  far-reaching  effect  in 
keeping  this  natural  attitude  of  mind  toward  par- 
enthood. 

We  get  up  a  lot  of  wasted  sentiment  about  the 
little  mothers  and  fathers,  not  seeing  that  the  of- 


28o    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

fices  are  fitting  them  to  meet  a  future  when  all 
that  they  learn  in  the  care  of  baby  brothers  and 
sisters  will  make  their  lives  easier  as  fathers  and 
mothers.  Often  the  only  opportunity  they  have 
for  expressing  affection  is  the  little  baby  given  to 
their  care. 

How  well  one  must  know  this  part  of  the  wage- 
earning  world  before  it  is  possible  to  appreciate 
the  fact  that  the  boy  is  being  trained  by  "his  baby" 
for  that  future  when  he  will  share  with  the  mother 
of  his  child  its  care.  It  is  a  constant  revelation 
to  find  how  intelligent  the  young  men  at  this  level 
are  about  children,  and  how  frankly  and  uncon- 
sciously they  will  express  it  and  condemn  the 
ignorant  or  careless  treatment  of  a  child.  The 
relation  of  the  wage-earning  children  to  the  little 
children  is  paternal  often.  The  little  ones  know 
that  the  elder  ones  work  and  care  for  them,  and 
they  render  an  obedience  that  is  often  amusing. 
With  sisters  this  takes  another  form.  If  the  elder 
girl  has  ideas  and  tastes,  especially  if  she  has  skill, 
she  will  often  entirely  decide  how  the  younger 
children  shall  dress;  often  the  younger  children 
would  not  be  at  all  satisfied  with  clothes  the  elder 
girls  did  not  select  and  design.  Here  again  will 
be  found  a  half-maternal  attitude  that  secures  obe- 
dience and  regulates  privileges;  that  sometimes 
ignores  the  rightful  authority  in  the  home.     The 


HOME  STANDARDS  281 

young  girl  who  has  an  elder  sister  working  and 
secures  work  with  her  is  considered  very  fortu- 
nate. Two  sisters  are  known,  now  past  middle 
life.  One  is  quite  a  handsome  woman,  the  other 
plain.  The  handsome  sister  is  the  younger;  she 
never,  when  she  was  a  wage-earner,  went  through 
the  streets  alone.  The  elder  sister,  when  they  did 
not  work  together,  escorted  the  younger  one  back 
and  forth  to  her  work.  Now,  the  mother  of  three 
children,  nothing  could  persuade  her  to  go  on 
the  streets  alone  beyond  the  corner  store.  Her 
husband,  in  a  city  department  on  a  small  salary, 
always  attends  her  in  shopping  expeditions,  and 
all  social  engagements  are  made  with  respect  to 
his  hours  of  freedom.  She  receives  a  wealth  of 
love,  and  tenderness,  and  protection.  Selfish? 
Yes,  till  one  wonders  at  the  blindness  of  those  who 
do  her  homage. 

Once  a  very  sensible  wife  and  mother,  whose 
intelligence  and  devotion  are  raising  the  family 
many  degrees  above  that  of  the  generation  pre- 
ceding her  and  her  husband,  said :  "I  shall  watch 
my  children.  My  mother  let  one  of  my  sisters 
exact  far  more  than  her  share  of  wages.  She 
coaxed  or  cried,  or  both,  until  she  got  what  she 
wanted.  The  rest  of  us  gave  in,  because  we  would 
not  worry  mother;  you  see  that,  now  we  are  all 
married,  she  expects  us  to  save  her  from  worry 


282     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

and  work;  we  have  to;  she  cannot  get  along." 
In  a  moment  she  continued:  "Haven't  you  seen 
it,  that  in  every  large  family  there  is  one  who  gets 
more  and  gives  less  than  the  others?"  A  state- 
ment profoundly  true,  but  not  confined  to  any  one 
social  level. 

Among  the  discoveries  the  explorer  into  this 
world  makes  is  that  life  is  full  of  compensations. 
One  learns  to  overlook  bad  housekeeping,  when 
it  is  discovered  that  a  cross,  impatient  word  is 
never  spoken  by  the  house-mother;  that  the  chil- 
dren are  the  companions  of  the  mother;  that  no 
one  else  is  so  attractive ;  that  she  is  never  too  busy 
to  listen  to  anything  that  interests  them.  One 
learns  to  forgive  the  needlessly  shabby  dressing 
of  children,  when  it  is  discovered  that  they  are 
well  nourished  and  cared  for,  and  that  the  hus- 
band and  father  never  fails  to  declare  that  his 
wife  is  the  best  cook  in  the  city  and  always  has 
his  meals  on  time.  Usually  this  mother  is  fat, 
full  of  fun,  and  laughs  as  though  tears  were  not 
in  the  world. 

Order,  cleanliness  and  economy  do  not  appeal 
as  cardinal  virtues  when  it  is  found  that  there  is 
no  room  for  the  children  in  the  house,  no  money 
to  buy  them  the  smallest  pleasure  where  these 
over-estimated  virtues  predominate.  It  is  found 
usually  that  the  worry  of  maintaining  standards 


HOME  STANDARDS  283 

that  ignore  the  rights  of  the  family,  and  to  which 
they  have  been  sacrificed,  have  seared  the  mother's 
head  and  heart,  and  she  no  longer  responds  to  the 
maternal  emotions;  she  becomes  the  victim  of 
her  own  habits  and  cannot  reform.  Perhaps  it  is 
this  type  of  woman  who  creates  the  most  barren 
home ;  the  one  that  is  quite  as  prolific  a  source  of 
supply  to  the  saloons  and  the  streets  as  that  of 
the  degenerate  housekeeper  out  of  whose  life  spir- 
itual impulse  has  departed,  and  into  which  ideals 
and  ambitions  were  never  born. 

It  is  difficult  at  times  to  decide  whether  to 
laugh  at  or  resent  the  criticisms  one  often  hears 
of  the  extravagances  of  the  poor.  When  one  be- 
comes familiar  with  the  demands  for  rent,  coal, 
shoes,  for  clothes  that  must  be  worn  to  work  and 
school ;  for  the  things  the  cost  of  which  cannot 
be  put  below  a  certain  sum — food  always  can  be 
regulated — and  compares  these  fixed  charges  with 
the  income  available,  the  management  of  money 
in  the  independent  working  man's  family  amounts 
to  genius,  and  it  must  take  generations  of 
economists  to  produce  it. 

Unfortunately,  in  New  York  emphasis  is  laid 
on  clothes.  Extravagance  in  dress  is  the  habit 
of  the  city.  The  people  seen  in  the  streets,  in  the 
stores,  in  public  conveyances,  show  a  singular  uni- 
formity in  clothes;  this  is  as  true  of  men  as  of 


284    LEAVEN.  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

women.  The  differences  are  in  manners  and 
English.  The  spirit  of  the  land  is  as  yet  ma- 
terialistic, and  the  democratic  spirit  shows  itself 
in  the  outward  forms.  The  tailor-made  gown 
was  not  looked  upon  as  a  regenerator  of  aesthetic 
standards,  but  it  has  proved  that.  Its  simplicity 
and  durability  has  released  money  that  formerly 
was  used  in  useless  trimming.  The  ready- 
trimmed  hat  is  also  a  lever  in  throwing  the  scale 
in  the  right  direction. 

The  attention  to  school  decoration  of  recent 
years  has  given  new  standards  for  the  home.  The 
wage-earning  world  grows  more  harmonious  in 
its  demands  on  wages;  the  home  now  makes  its 
demands  for  decoration  that  the  workers  obey. 
Signs  outside  of  tenement  houses  renting  suites 
of  four  rooms  for  twenty  and  twenty-five  dollars 
per  month  announce:  "Burlaped  halls;  parlors  in 
white  and  blue;"  or,  "Tiled  halls,  open  gas  grates, 
fancy  chandeliers."  The  men  who  hire  these 
apartments  earn  from  fifteen  to  twenty-five  dollars 
a  week  or  more.  Thousands  of  American  working 
men  pay  these  rentals  to  save  their  children  from 
the  environment  inseparable  from  the  surround- 
ings that  must  be  endured  if  a  fair  proportion 
of  their  wages  were  used  for  rent.  One  grows  to 
reverence  the  courage  that  enables  a  husband  and 
wife,  with  only  one  pair  of  hands  earning  the 


HOME  STANDARDS  285 

home  needs,  to  assume  such  rents.  No  higher 
evidence  of  the  manhood  and  righteous  ambition 
of  the  American  citizen  could  be  given  than  this : 
that  he  places  his  all  to  secure  for  his  children  a 
home  that  is  reasonably  protected ;  that  offers  op- 
portunities for  cleanliness  and  privacy.  Renting 
a  room  to  a  lodger  will  sometimes  make  less  de- 
mands on  a  father's  wages  for  rent;  sometimes 
the  rent  is  assumed  in  the  hope  of  securing  lodg- 
ers, and  then  the  struggle  is  pathetic,  but  borne 
because  the  children  must  not  grow  up  in  a  less 
desirable  neighborhood.  If  one  were  asked  for 
the  standard  by  which  to  measure  the  civilization 
of  each  family  in  the  wage-earning  world,  the  re- 
ply would  have  to  be,  "Rent."  It  at  once  makes 
the  most  and  the  least  return;  it  is  the  tyrant 
which  makes  or  mars  the  home  life.  When  a 
family  of  eight,  having  a  combined  income  of 
thirty-six  dollars  a  week,  are  content  to  live  in 
three  rooms,  one  knows  about  what  to  expect  in 
social  standards,  and  how  many  generations  it  will 
take  to  raise  the  home  level.  When  a  family  of 
six — five  wage-earners — who  began  life  at  almost 
the  homeless  level,  gradually  come  into  a  com- 
bined income  of  two  thousand  dollars  a  year,  it 
is  not  to  be  expected  that  its  standards  of  needs 
will  be  those  of  a  college  graduate  on  the  same 
income.     Often  no  member  of  the  family  can  read 


286     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

readily.  School  life  was,  especially  for  the  elder 
children,  an  intermittent  one,  and  truth  did  not 
regulate  the  beginning  of  wage-earning  of  any  of 
the  children.  The  younger  children  probably 
warred  against  school  long  before  fourteen  years 
of  life  gave  them  freedom.  There  is  natural  in- 
telligence, a  certain  manner  acquired  through 
observation,  but  no  standard  of  intellectual  life. 
Their  very  intelligence  makes  such  families  con- 
scious of  their  shortcomings,  and  it  is  this  con- 
sciousness that  leads  to  the  aggressiveness  of 
manner  that  is  so  offensive,  so  often  mistakenly 
called  the  American  manner.  It  is  the  manner 
that  is  due  to  awakened  consciousness  which  in 
the  next  generation  will  know  when  to  wear  even- 
ing dress,  if  not  how. 

The  use  of  money  in  such  families  is  for  show. 
It  would  be  counted  extravagant  to  buy  a  book,  or 
a  ticket  to  an  oratorio  or  a  concert  to  hear  the  best 
music.  It  would  in  such  a  family  be  counted  use- 
less to  train  the  younger  children  to  wage- 
earning  by  education.  The  heads  of  the  family 
will  be  hospitable  where  it  counts  as  showing  how 
much  more  they  have  than  the  others  in  their 
world.  They  receive  from  their  world  what 
snobbishness  receives  everywhere.  Snobbish- 
ness, on  the  whole,  is  not  common  even  where 
the  income  would  remove  the  family  from  a  tene- 


HOME  STANDARDS  287 

ment-house  environment.  The  uncertainty  of 
work,  and  the  absolute  dependence  of  the  worker 
on  wages,  make  snobbishness  dangerous;  that 
often  proves  a  boomerang  their  observation  shows. 

The  spirit  of  helpfulness  may  not  find  so  free  a 
field  of  operations  when  wages  are  two  dollars 
and  a  half  and  over  a  day,  but  it  is  in  readiness. 
Sickness  in  a  neighbor's  family  will  show  that  it 
has  not  been  lost  because  of  prosperity,  but  it  is 
less  lavish;  there  is  dawning  consciousness  that 
self-preservation  is  the  first  law  of  nature;  that 
home  has  the  first  right  to  strength  and  thought ; 
that  only  the  surplus  is  available  for  the  world  of 
friends.  The  same  thriftlessness  which  makes  a 
family  accept  charity  without  question  is  the  cause 
of  their  generosity.  As  the  sense  of  responsibility 
develops,  the  observer  discovers  a  reserve  in  the 
giving  of  either  their  money  or  their  strength  to 
those  about  them ;  kindness  abounds,  but  generos- 
ity is  regulated  as  one  goes  up  the  scale  in  the 
world  of  wage-earners.  Not  only  that,  but  in  the 
direst  need  the  needy,  as  one  goes  up  the  scale, 
regulate  the  degree  of  freedom  given  the  closest 
friends.  It  often  borders  on  the  tragic,  the  suf- 
fering borne  in  silence,  and  revealed  often  when 
the  time  for  help  is  passed. 

This  division  of  the  people  into  rich  and  poor 
without  gradations  and  without  a  comprehension 


288     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

of  the  standards  and  needs  that  make  new  worlds 
up  and  down  the  scale,  has  had  a  serious  effect  on 
the  home  life,  the  church  life  of  the  people,  the 
political  life  of  the  people.  The  churches  have 
driven  out  the  very  people  in  the  tenement-house 
regions  who  needed  them  and  whom  they  needed. 
Corrupt  administration  has  imposed  burdens  on 
the  homes  which  for  a  time  the  voters  in  turn  felt 
powerless  to  lift.  The  independent  wage-earner 
found  his  hope  of  political  recognition  in  alle- 
giance to  the  political  machines.  The  leaders,  his 
inferiors  often  mentally,  and  still  more  surely 
morally,  were  at  least  approachable  and  familiar, 
and  the  man  who  made  his  own  life  found  too 
often  that  only  in  the  political  circle  of  interest 
was  he  the  equal  of  those  who  led.  Here  there 
was  no  manner  that  expressed  condescension  or 
superiority.  His  own  language  was  spoken;  he 
was  at  home.  That  these  men  allowed  themselves 
to  be  used  was  the  natural  result  of  the  habit  of  in- 
difference to  the  real  issues  in  a  municipal  cam- 
paign so  common  in  New  York.  When  the  bur- 
dens of  a  corrupt  administration  pressed  on  the 
homes;  when  the  leaders  for  righteous  govern- 
ment acknowledged  by  appealing  to  the  makers  of 
this  country,  the  plain  people,  that  they  were  an 
integral  part  of  the  city's  government,  they  re- 
sponded, and  by  their  response  overthrew  the  cor- 


HOME  STANDARDS  289 

rupt  government  that  the  indifference  of  all  classes 
had  helped  to  make  powerful. 

The  century  opens  well.  Capitalist  and  wage- 
earner  sit  at  the  same  board,  having  equal  voice 
in  the  plans  for  redeeming  the  city  from  partisan 
machine  control. 

As  one  thinks  of  the  change,  one  sees  that  the 
evils  that  disgraced  New  York  were  due  to  the  in- 
difference of  the  millionaires  and  the  honest  work- 
ing men.  It  is  the  response  of  the  political  con- 
science of  both  to  the  need  of  the  city  that  has 
been  its  redemption ;  its  only  sure  protection  is  the 
activity  of  that  conscience  three  hundred  and 
sixty-five  days  of  each  year  in  all  the  years  to 
come. 


CHAPTER   X. 

WHERE   LIES   THE  RESPONSIBILITY? 

It  took  years  for  the  evils  of  political  machines 
to  make  life  unbearable  in  New  York.  Not  until 
the  tremendous  evils  it  imposed  on  child-life  were 
given  emphasis  did  the  public  sentiment  of  the 
city  find  intelligent  expression — voice  the  moral 
conscience  of  the  whole  people.  That  dishonest 
administration  of  the  city  government  imposed 
burdens  on  the  home  of  the  poor  man  no  intelli- 
gent person  disputed;  but  few  knew  how  heavy 
the  burdens  or  how  far-reaching  the  effects  on 
character.  The  people  who  suffered  most  were, 
in  the  very  nature  of  things,  the  ones  who  could 
not  see  these  influences,  or  estimate  truly  the  de- 
grading effect  on  character.  The  people  who  re- 
sented the  conditions  that  made  life  harder  in  the 
tenements;  who  resented  the  environment  which 
made  the  bringing  up  of  children  in  innocence,  in- 
tegrity, and  decency  often  impossible,  were  those 
who  were  in  the  minority.  Hopelessness  of  over- 
coming the  evils  made  some  voters  the  forgers  of 
their  own  chains. 

Newspapers  gave  columns  to  the  exposure  of 


THE  RESPONSIBILITY         291 

the  evils  of  the  political  methods  which  made 
individuals  rich  at  the  cost  of  the  homes  of  the 
city,  especially  the  homes  of  the  poor.  But  the 
phase  of  this  influence  that  was  most  degrading 
could  only  be  learned  by  living  in  the  regions,  one 
of  the  people,  suffering  with  them  the  burdens 
dishonesty  imposed. 

When  college-trained  men  and  women  es- 
tablished their  homes  in  the  regions  of  the  tene- 
ments, making  friends  with  the  people,  associating 
freely  with  them,  especially  with  the  young 
people  and  the  children,  they  discovered  that  the 
worst  evil  with  which  the  people  were  contending 
was  the  constant  lowering  of  the  moral  standards 
due  to  the  influence  of  the  political  organization 
that  seemed  to  regulate  even  the  right  of  the  peo- 
ple to  earn  a  living.  It  was  but  a  step  from  fear 
to  favor;  but  a  little  time  before  the  man  out- 
weighed the  principle;  Justice  became  the  hand- 
maid of  "pull,"  and  the  people  living  wholly  under 
the  environment  corrupt  political  power  created, 
knew  no  government  but  that  of  the  "leader"  and 
the  man  who  represented  him.  To  trade  votes  was 
no  disgrace,  for  it  meant  a  share  in  the  perquisites 
that  political  power  held.  These  men  and  women 
of  trained  intelligence  saw  that  the  corrupting 
of  the  moral  standards  of  the  people  was  a  far 
greater  evil — an  evil  that  was  of  far  greater  mo- 


292     LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

ment  to  the  whole  people  than  the  maladministra- 
tions that  affected  their  physical  being,  though  it 
led  to  death. 

It  was  the  revelations  the  Settlement  workers 
were  able  to  make  to  a  half-informed  community 
of  wealth  and  trained  intelligence  that  led  to  the 
redeeming  of  the  city.  It  made  the  active  com- 
bination of  wealth  and  poverty  that  brought  into 
the  political  arena  the  dormant  consciences  that 
created  in  1901  the  Apotheosis,  New  York  re- 
deemed, that  is  the  justification  of  democracy  to 
the  world. 

The  iniquity,  ignorance  and  indifference  that 
create  and  maintain  a  system  of  municipal  ad- 
ministration based  on  the  theory  that  politics  is  a 
profession,  and  each  promoter  the  architect  of  his 
own  fortune,  to  be  built  at  the  expense  of  the  citi- 
zens, is  the  reflection  of  the  character  of  the 
citizens.  The  system  is  never  the  product  of  one 
man's  brains,  nor  does  its  growth  ever  begin  at 
the  top.  It  begins  always  in  the  smallest  political 
unit,  where  the  man  who  wishes  the  office  in  the 
gift  of  that  unit  stands  closest  to  the  people.  The 
bargaining  for  votes  begins  there.  The  number 
of  exchanges  of  votes  for  favors  and  places  suc- 
cessfully accomplished  makes  the  "boss,"  the  man 
who  represents  law  and  order ;  who  is  judge,  and 
jury,  and  keeper  of  the  jail  to  those  who  do  his 


THE  RESPONSIBILITY         293 

bidding.  As  the  political  units  develop  their 
bosses — "leaders,"  in  voters'  parlance — the  sys- 
tem grows  until  the  chain  is  complete,  and  each 
political  henchman,  in  the  order  of  his  importance, 
takes  his  share  of  the  people's  money.  The  per- 
quisites reach  millions  before  the  thousands  are 
distributed  that  enables  the  leader  to  pose  as  the 
all-pervading  friend  to  the  district  in  time  of  need. 
The  political  units  where  this  system  of  gov- 
ernment in  the  interest  of  the  "boss"  have  their 
strongest  hold  are  the  best  evidences  of  the  moral 
degeneracy  that  follows.  Here  the  liquor  sa- 
loons flourish,  the  headquarters  of  the  "leader" 
and  his  cohorts,  used  in  the  order  of  rank  in  the 
system,  from  the  gayly  lighted,  silver-bedecked, 
mirror-lined  bar-room  to  the  smoky,  dirty,  vilely 
kept  den  where  those  gather  who  have  no  use  in 
life  but  to  vote  according  to  orders  and  work  for 
the  political  leader's  entrenchment.  These  sa- 
loons represent  the  primary  school  and  the  uni- 
versity of  the  voters  of  the  district.  They  repre- 
sent all  the  educational  and  recreative  opportunity 
of  most  of  the  adults.  They  establish  the  habits 
of  thinking  for  the  majority  of  the  people,  for 
they  are  the  lyceum  where  all  questions  are  dis- 
cussed that  interest  the  people.  The  most  inter- 
esting is  how  to  get  wages,  as  it  is  the  most  im- 
portant.     The  common  struggle  creates  common 


294     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

bonds  of  sympathy.  All  principles  go  down  be- 
fore the  concrete,  understandable  fact  that  if  the 
"boss"  is  beaten,  work  will  cease  for  neighbor, 
friend,  and  friend's  friend.  Each  man  learns 
through  every  course  in  this  training  school  of 
citizens  that  the  paramount  duty  of  each  voter  is 
to  keep  the  "boss"  in  power.  It  means  wages,  or 
the  hope  of  wages,  under  the  least  strenuous  of 
employers,  the  city.  Men  work  hard  for  the  sys- 
tem, not  because  the  moral  nature  of  many  of 
them  is  not  in  revolt  against  the  system,  but  be- 
cause the  keeping  of  a  home  for  wife  and  children 
is  at  stake.  Often  the  voter's  necessities,  his 
ignorance  often,  his  rebellion  against  wealth 
often,  his  unrest,  undermine  his  moral  nature, 
blind  his  intelligence,  and  he  forges  the  chains 
that  bind  him  in  slavery  to  a  system  that  will  cast 
him  aside,  and  refuse  him  a  reason  when  there  is 
no  use  for  him.  The  voter  may  work  during  an 
election  campaign  half  knowing  that  to  secure  an- 
other worker  in  the  interests  of  the  political  sys- 
tem the  place  he  holds  has  been  promised  to 
another  after  election.  This  fear  and  this  hope 
enters  the  homes;  women  and  children  are  edu- 
cated under  the  moral  degradation  that  enslaves 
husbands,  sons,  brothers,  friends,  lovers.  The 
standards  of  morals  are  established  even  in  child- 
hood by  the  working  of  the  systems  of  political 


TAKING   THEIR    TURN    IN    THE    YARD    AT   THE    SETTLEMENT. 


THE  RESPONSIBILITY         295 

machines.      There  is  one  measure  of  morals,  suc- 
cess.    What  succeeds  is  right. 

A  small  house  was  hired,  through  the  generos- 
ity of  several  women,  for  the  purpose  of  providing 
a  place  for  recreation  and  social  opportunity  for  a 
number  of  Christians — that  is,  people  not  He- 
brews— left  in  a  thickly  settled  Hebrew  district. 
These  Christians,  a  mere  remnant,  resented  the 
opportunities  offered  the  Hebrews,  and  while 
they  might  have  availed  themselves  of  them,  they 
would  not,  so  strong  was  the  race  prejudice. 
Shortly  after  the  house  was  opened  a  delegation 
of  boys  appeared  asking  for  the  use  of  the  large 
room  for  a  boys'  club.  The  privilege  was  given 
on  the  conditions  that  one  of  the  workers  inter- 
ested in  the  house  should  have  the  privilege  of  vis- 
iting the  room  freely  when  the  club  was  in 
session;  that  the  club  should  pay  twenty  cents 
per  month  for  the  use  of  the  room ;  that  it  should 
be  limited  to  twenty  members  for  three  months. 
Before  the  first  month  had  passed,  it  was  decided 
that  unless  the  club  would  accept  a  director,  it 
was  a  waste  of  the  space  and  light  to  let  these 
boys  use  the  room.  They  called  themselves  a 
debating  and  literary  club.  They  knew  nothing 
of  literature  naturally  and  less  of  debating.  They 
were  told  that  they  must  accept  a  director,  a  man 
who  would  instruct  them  in  parliamentary  law, 


296     LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

guide  them  in  debate  and  suggest  subjects  for 
study,  or  they  must  give  up  the  room.  They 
were  very  angry,  but  finally  decided  to  accept  the 
director.  Their  constitution  provided  for  an  elec- 
tion every  month,  a  provision  which  kept  them 
in  a  turmoil  all  the  time.  When  the  majority 
were  convinced  of  this,  and  voted  that  officers 
should  be  elected  every  three  months,  the  dissent- 
ing minority  withdrew  to  form  a  new  club,  to 
meet  somewhere  else.  Two  weeks  later,  on  club 
night,  the  bell  rang.  The  leader  of  the  minority, 
who  had  been  elected  president  of  the  new  club, 
asked  if  they  might  come  back.  They  did  not 
like  the  place  where  they  met.  After  a  confer- 
ence with  the  original  club,  it  was  decided  that, 
if  they  chose  to  come  back  as  members  of  the  club 
and  pay  their  dues — three  cents  per  week — they 
might  come  back.  The  conditions  were  accepted, 
and  the  seceding  minority  were  to  be  reinstated 
as  members  of  the  original  club  on  the  next  meet- 
ing night.  As  the  petitioner  was  leaving,  he 
turned  innocently  to  the  director  and  said :  "Say, 
we've  elected  a  couple  of  new  fellows.  They  can 
come  in,  can't  they?"  The  club  consented  condi- 
tionally on  the  "new  fellows"  being  peaceable. 
The  next  meeting  night  came.  The  bell  rang. 
In  order  to  do  full  honor  to  the  returning  prodi- 
gals, the  president  went  to  the  door.      There  was 


THE  RESPONSIBILITY         297 

a  rush  and  a  scramble;  the  eight  boys  who  with- 
drew, followed  by  twenty-two  others,  crowded 
into  the  room  and  demanded  an  election  at  once. 
They  declared  they  were  in  the  majority  now,  and 
had  a  right  to  the  presidency  for  one  of  their  own 
number.  It  was  impossible  to  eject  them,  had 
it  been  wise.  The  question  was  postponed  for 
one  week  and  an  arbitrator  selected. 

When  the  next  meeting  night  came,  some  of  the 
new  recruits  had  dropped  out  and  their  places  had 
been  taken  by  older  boys.  The  original  members, 
who  had  maintained  the  club,  were  told  to  sit 
together  and  keep  absolutely  quiet.  The  consti- 
tution declared  that  no  boy  was  a  member  of  the 
club  who  did  not  pay  an  initiation  fee  of  five  cents ; 
this  included  the  first  month's  dues.  The  first 
strange  boy  was  asked :  "Have  you  paid  your  in- 
itiation fee?"  The  leader,  a  boy  not  fourteen, 
sprang  forward  and  pressed  a  five-cent  piece  in 
the  boy's  hand,  saying:  "Pay  it  now.  Joe's  the 
treasurer."  The  cue  had  been  given  him,  and 
he  proceeded  to  give  out  nickels  to  the  new  boys, 
urging  them  to  "pay  Joe  quick."  During  this 
scene  another  of  the  receding  minority  took  his 
position  in  front  of  the  door  to  prevent  any  boy 
leaving  the  room  with  the  money.  The  perform- 
ance was  stopped ;  the  opulent  small  boy,  who  it 
was  evident  was  buying  votes  for  the  presidency, 


298     LEAVEN  IN   A  GREAT  CITY 

was  told  to  gather  up  his  nickels.  The  recruits 
were  told,  after  an  explanation,  why  they  must 
leave,  and  to  their  credit  be  it  recorded  some  of 
them  resented  the  position  in  which  they  had  been 
placed  and  promised  the  misleading  leader  an  un- 
happy next  day  before  they  left.  It  was  then  de- 
cided that  the  twelve  members  who  had  consti- 
tuted the  majority  should  ballot  individually  for 
the  eight  who  had  seceded,  as  though  they  had 
never  belonged  to  the  club.  It  is  unnecessary 
to  say  that  the  boy  who  made  the  trouble 
was  rejected.  Not  one  of  those  boys  was  fif- 
teen years  old,  yet  they  had  learned  and  under- 
stood the  method  of  the  political  organizations  of 
the  region.  Their  elders,  those  they  loved,  used 
these  methods,  and  succeeded  by  them  in  getting 
place  and  power.  The  man  who  succeeded  in 
sharp  practice  in  politics  was  the  "boss."  The 
man  who  was  beaten  was  not  smart.  The  meas- 
ure of  morals  was  success,  not  methods  used  to 
attain  that  success. 

A  woman's  club,  organized  several  years  be- 
fore, used  this  house.  The  husbands  of  several 
of  them  organized  a  men's  club,  and  met  in  the 
house  one  evening  in  the  week.  Several  of  those 
men  were  affiliated  with  the  political  organizations 
of  the  district ;  some  held  positions  under  the  city 
government  through  these  affiliations. 


THE  RESPONSIBILITY         299 

When  the  Citizens'  Union  campaign  began  in 
1897,  the  women  who  established  the  house  of- 
fered it  and  the  yard  for  one  evening  a  week  to 
the  Citizens'  Union  Campaign  Committee.  Illus- 
trated lectures  were  given  to  the  people  of  the 
neighborhood,  the  friends  of  the  clubs  using  the 
house,  and  the  parents  of  children  in  the  children's 
clubs.  This  declared  the  sentiments  of  the  wo- 
men who  established  the  house,  which  were  em- 
phasized when  a  picture  of  the  Citizens'  Union 
candidate  for  Mayor  was  put  in  the  window.  It 
became  evident  at  once  that  there  was  trouble  in 
the  women's  club;  some  of  the  members  of  the 
men's  club  never  entered  the  house  after  the  pic- 
ture was  placed.  The  Citizens'  Union  was  de- 
feated. At  once  the  friction  in  the  women's  club 
developed,  till  it  seemed  wise  to  disband  it.  It 
was  announced  that  the  house  had  been  given  up, 
and  that  all  the  work  done  there  must  be  placed 
elsewhere.  The  younger  clubs  were  housed  in 
the  Clark  Memorial.  The  women's  club,  in  spite 
of  the  friction,  voted  to  keep  together,  and,  with 
the  City  History  Club,  asked  to  be  received  at  the 
College  Settlement,  which  generously,  and  at 
great  inconvenience,  arranged  to  receive  them. 
The  members  of  the  women's  club,  numbering 
forty-five,  voted  unanimously  to  become  identified 
with  the  College  Settlement  work,  and  pledged 


3oo    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

themselves  to  that  work.  The  one  woman  who 
had  resisted  this  decision  in  secret  stood  with  the 
rest  pledged  to  the  Settlement.  At  once  she  in- 
cited trouble  at  the  Settlement.  She  was  voted  out 
of  the  club.  When  the  decision  was  announced, 
she,  with  the  treasurer  of  the  club  and  three  oth- 
ers, walked  out  of  the  house,  the  treasurer  tak- 
ing the  club  treasurer's  book  and  the  money, 
over  seventeen  dollars.  Sunday's  papers  an- 
nounced the  incorporation  of  a  club  under  the  old 
name.  The  incorporators  were  the  five  women 
who  had  left  the  club  at  the  Settlement.  The  busi- 
ness of  incorporating  was  attended  to  by  a  po- 
litical leader  in  the  State  Assembly.  One  of  these 
women  had  held  a  position  in  a  city  department, 
secured  for  her  by  a  leader  of  one  of  the  political 
parties;  one  was  the  wife  of  a  man  holding  a  city 
position  through  active  affiliation  with  the  other 
political  party ;  another  was  the  wife  of  a  man  who 
was  striving  for  prominence  in  political  affairs  in 
the  district,  irrespective  of  party;  the  other  was 
shrewd,  ambitious,  vindictive.  The  club  before 
this  break  had  done  charitable  work;  had  helped 
families  who  needed  help,  through  the  generosity 
of  friends  of  wealth.  It  had  a  limited  member- 
ship, and  election  was  the  assurance  of  certain 
qualities  in  the  woman  who  was  received  as  a 
member.      All    this    had    commanded    attention 


THE  RESPONSIBILITY 


301 


and  could  furnish  political  capital.  To  hold  this 
for  one  or  the  other  of  the  political  parties  was 
the  intention  of  the  women  who  incorporated  un- 
der the  club  name  and  persuaded  six  of  the  club 
members  to  join  them. 

The  treasurer  was  so  evidently  the  cat's-paw 
of  those  who  were  managing  the  affair  that,  while 
steps  were  being  taken  to  punish  her  for  taking  the 
money,  the  club  at  the  Settlement  voted  not  to 
prosecute  her,  because  it  would  be  a  stigma  on  her 
as  long  as  she  lived,  because  she  would  have  to 
stand  with  women  arrested  for  drunkenness  and 
disorderly  characters  in  the  dock.  The  original 
club  remained  at  the  Settlement.  The  minority 
who  withdrew,  a  total  of  eleven,  began  active  and 
aggressive  work.  They  hired  the  use  of  a  work- 
ing-girls' club-room.  They  began  to  work  ac- 
cording to  the  most  approved  methods  of  political 
leaders.  They  attended  the  outings  of  a  political 
association ;  tried  to  do  what  they  called  charitable 
work,  but  which  this  very  group  proved  they 
could  not  do  justly  while  in  the  little  house. 

The  Fusion  campaign  of  1901  brought  unex- 
pected complications  to  the  club  woman.  The 
Tammany  influence  was  stronger  than  the  Repub- 
lican, and  the  women  who  had  led  in  the  incor- 
porating of  the  club  withdrew.  Unfortunately, 
the  opportunity  to  give  this  whole  group  a  strong 


302    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

lesson  in  morals  was  lost,  and  they  have  been  ac- 
cepted where,  had  the  genesis  of  their  club  been 
understood,  it  is  but  reasonable  to  suppose  they 
would  have  had  no  moral  support,  and  for  that 
reason  would  have  gained  a  moral  lesson. 

The  training  most  needed  by  the  people  of 
narrow  experience  and  limited  intelligence  is  that 
of  clear  distinctions  between  right  and  wrong  by 
those  they  class  above  themselves.  That  shrewd- 
ness is  not  a  moral  virtue;  that  revenge  is  mean 
and  not  the  function  of  mortals,  is  the  one  lesson 
intelligence  and  moral  standards  can  teach  con- 
vincingly. 

Recently  it  was  the  privilege  of  the  writer  to 
visit  a  Parents'  Society  connected  with  a  school 
in  the  outskirts  of  Brooklyn.  The  spirit  of  good 
fellowship  that  existed,  not  only  among  the  teach- 
ers of  the  school,  but  between  the  teachers  and  the 
parents,  was  a  revelation.  That  there  was  a  uni- 
fying cause  was  certain.  What  was  it  ?  One  of 
the  mothers,  during  a  walk  to  the  station,  revealed 
it.  In  response  to  a  comment  on  the  good  feel- 
ing so  evident,  the  mother  replied:  "Yes,  I  feel  it. 

Mr.  ,"  naming  a  member  of  the  Board  of 

Education,  "at  prayer  meeting  the  other  night 
spoke  of  the  school  and  what  a  power  it  was  in 
this  part  of  the  city.  We  owe  it  all  to  him.  He's 
done  everything  he  could  do  for  the  school,  and 


THE  RESPONSIBILITY 


3°3 


he  has  made  all  the  ministers  and  the  priests 
friends  of  the  school."  She  was  quiet  a  minute, 
and  then  added :  "Years  ago,  when  he  first  began 
fighting  for  the  school,  people  used  to  call  him  a 
'boss.'  I  think  that  kind  of  a  boss  would  be 
good  in  every  school.  I  tell  my  husband  we  ought 
to  be  glad  that  we  bought  that  lot  out  here  and 
built  when  we  did,  for  we  helped  to  make  Mr. 

successful.      If  leading  men  to  do  your  will 

means  being  a  'boss,'  Mr.  is  one.     But  the 

city  needs  hundreds  of  such  'bosses.'  "  The  man 
is  a  simple  American  citizen,  bearing  a  foreign 
name,  who  saw  clearly  there  were  more  ways  of 
serving  and  saving  his  country  than  by  carrying  a 
rifle. 

In  the  last  analysis  the  "boss"  as  he  is  in  New 
York  to-day  is  the  product  of  many  roots.  The 
one  that  goes  deepest  in  the  soil,  the  course  of 
his  deepest  hold,  can  be  traced  to  the  doors  of  our 
churches.  The  men  who  have  failed  to  see  that 
they  owed  an  allegiance  to  the  city  that  does  not 
differ  in  degree  from  what  they  owed  the  Church ; 
the  men  who  failed  to  see  that  the  Church  was  a 
positive  factor  in  civic  life ;  that  its  effectiveness  in 
the  community  was  dependent  on  the  standards  it 
demanded  and  helped  to  maintain  in  the  city ;  that 
on  it  rested  the  responsibility  for  civic  character- 
building — on  these  men  rest  the  heaviest  responsi- 


3o4    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

bility  for  the  evolution  of  the  political  "boss"  and 
the  evils  of  which  he  is  the  personification. 

Men  and  women  give  money  to  maintain 
church  services  in  sections  where  political  corrup- 
tion and  civic  neglect  have  resulted  in  creating  an 
environment  that  makes  decent  living  impossible ; 
an  environment  that  has  so  degenerating  an  influ- 
ence that  the  people  become  a  factor  in  the  prob- 
lem it  presents,  for  they  have  sunk  to  its  level. 

In  those  sections  the  tools  of  the  "boss,"  his 
active  political  agents,  use  the  most  despicable 
methods.  The  tool  of  the  principal  is  valuable 
as  he  is  conscienceless.  His  crumbs  are  the  minor 
offices  in  the  gift  of  the  people;  the  lesser  tools  get 
"jobs,"  which  the  very  limitations  of  their  minds 
make  them  believe  they  must  use  to  secure  the 
largest  return  of  money  and  power  to  themselves 
— a  conception  largely  due  to  the  indifference 
of  the  men  who  willingly  delegate  their  civic 
responsibilities.  Every  man  and  woman  who 
pays  the  slightest  attention  to  the  conditions 
under  which  the  poor  are  forced  to  live,  know 
that  these  conditions  are  responsible  for  the 
existence  of  nine-tenths  of  the  eleemosynary  in- 
stitutions, private  and  public.  They  know  that 
many  of  these  institutions,  could  they  stand  before 
the  community  in  their  true  character,  would  be 
recognized  as  disgraceful  blots  upon  our  civiliza- 


THE  RESPONSIBILITY         305 

tion.  They  exist  because  so  many  good  people  in 
the  community  have  found  greater  pleasure  in  es- 
tablishing and  maintaining  them  than  in  working 
actively  to  prevent  the  growth  of  the  conditions 
that  peoples  them. 

Again  and  again  one  sees  the  names  of  men 
and  women  working  actively  on  these  boards  of 
mangement  who  would  not  give  a  moment's 
thought  to  a  meeting  called  in  the  interests  of  bet- 
ter civilization  in  sections  of  the  city  where  their 
own  homes  are  located ;  who  know  nothing  of  the 
conditions  of  the  schools,  the  streets,  the  tenement 
houses,  the  factories,  or  the  administration  of 
the  law  in  regard  to  them.  There  are  men  who 
would  resent  the  charge  of  ignorance  who  do  not 
know  the  names  of  the  officers  they  either  actively 
or  passively  elected  to  office  in  the  political  unit 
in  which  are  their  homes.  They  do  not  attend 
the  primaries,  defending  their  absence  on  the 
ground  that  they  could  accomplish  nothing  by 
their  presence — a  defense  that  is  in  itself  a  self- 
accusation.  If  their  divine  right  of  citizenship 
has  been  forfeited,  it  is  by  their  own  civic  sin  of 
omission.  The  longer  one  studies  the  evils  that 
have  grown  up  in  the  administration  of  the  busi- 
ness of  the  great  municipality  of  New  York,  the 
clearer  one  sees  that  the  sins  of  omission  are  re- 
sponsible for  their  growth — far  more  responsible 


3o6     LEAVEN   IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

than  the  sins  of  commission  against  which  intelli- 
gent voters  rail,  when  they  do  not  use  them  as 
salve  for  their  political  consciences.  It  is  a  pro- 
found truth  that  in  a  republic  the  character  of  the 
people  is  shown  in  the  character  of  the  men  the 
people  elect  to  office.  This  is  as  true  of  the  ward 
as  of  the  nation. 

The  political  units  of  government  in  New  York 
are,  in  the  main,  inhabited  by  the  rich  and  poor, 
the  intelligent  and  the  ignorant;  those  who  can 
reason  from  effect  to  cause,  and  those  who  cannot 
reason  at  all.  Yet  in  these  sections  the  worst 
possible  home  conditions  will  exist — unsanitary 
schools,  dirty  streets,  badly  paved.  Saloons  will 
abound  and  political  corruption  will  go  unheeded. 
Why?  Because  no  men  of  intelligence  and  re- 
sponsibility will  accept  the  minor  offices  that  mean 
the  administration  of  the  affairs  of  this  unit  in 
the  interest  and  for  the  protection  of  the  whole 
people. 

When  men  of  position  in  the  professional  and 
business  world  signify  their  willingness  to  accept 
the  least  office  in  the  gift  of  the  people,  the  daily 
papers  announce  the  fact  in  large  headlines,  and 
the  men  become  marked  as  capable  of  great  self- 
sacrifice,  they  become  preeminent  for  the  time. 
The  men  who  have  controlled  the  nominations, 
those  who  have  no  other  visible  means  of  support 


THE  RESPONSIBILITY         307 

than  these  minor  offices  and  political  patronage, 
resent  the  suggestion  of  men  of  professional  and 
financial  fortunes  accepting  these  offices;  they 
consider  the  appearance  of  a  man  holding  business 
or  professional  positions  of  power  or  influence  as 
a  candidate  for  a  minor  office  as  an  invasion,  an 
intrusion  of  their  personal  rights ;  it  is  an  attempt 
to  defraud  them.  They  do  not  hesitate  to  pub- 
licly claim  the  right  to  nomination  and  election 
as  the  reward  for  their  activity  in  politics.  And 
they  do  this  when  they  cannot  point  to  one  thing 
done  officially  to  justify  their  claims  to  the  suf- 
frages of  the  people.  They  dare  to  do  it  in  the 
face  of  the  knowledge,  held  by  the  people,  that 
they  use  their  offices  often  for  personal  ends,  de- 
frauding the  people. 

The  scores  of  voters  who  have  places  within  the 
patronage  of  a  minor  official  see  the  danger  to 
them  of  an  official  who  would  place  merit  in  ad- 
vance of  votes.  The  man  of  position  may  be  far 
from  wealthy ;  may  consent  to  serve  the  city  at  a 
financial  loss ;  but  the  active  voters  live  so  remote 
from  the  voters  at  the  top  that  the  election  is 
almost  certain  to  be  decided  on  class  lines; 
and  the  defeat  of  the  non-professional  politician 
is  accepted  by  every  man,  woman  and  child  in  the 
poorer  portion  of  the  district  as  a  personal  tri- 
umph ;  the  evidence  that  the  poor  man  has  friends 


3o8     LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

to  back  him  in  his  fight  for  place  and  power ;  that 
the  poor  must  work  together  politically. 

Whose  fault  is  it?  The  good,  intelligent,  re- 
sponsible citizens  who  delegated  the  government 
of  their  city  to  the  men  who  use  it  for  their  per- 
sonal gain.  The  good  men  in  active  politics,  who 
openly  concede  the  right  to  the  minor  offices  in 
the  city  government  to  men  whom  they  know  are 
ignorant,  and  not  infrequently  know  equally  well 
are  dishonest,  and  who  will  sacrifice  the  interest 
of  the  people  to  strengthen  the  system  that  means 
personal  gains. 

The  political  conditions  of  the  city  several  years 
ago  gave  birth  to  one  of  the  periodic  moral  up- 
heavals that  resulted  in  the  election  of  a  strong, 
earnest,  loyal,  church-supporting  citizen  as 
Mayor.  This  Mayor  was  anxious  to  raise  the 
character  of  the  city  government.  He  determined 
to  accomplish  this  by  the  character  of  his  appoint- 
ments. He  had  more  than  a  superficial  knowl- 
edge of  the  public  schools,  which  at  that  time  were 
the  theater  for  the  exercise  of  political  "pulls." 
It  was  known  for  years  that  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation had  been  used  to  a  greater  or  less  extent 
to  pay  political  debts,  to  create  political  capital 
for  future  use  by  some  of  its  most  active  members. 
The  new  Mayor  had  it  in  his  power  to  change  the 


THE  RESPONSIBILITY         309 

character  of  the  Board,  and  he  carefully  consid- 
ered his  appointments. 

In  one  of  the  sections  of  the  city  where, 
numerically  as  to  families,  wealth  and  poverty 
were  fairly  balanced,  a  section  having  in  it 
churches  of  every  denomination,  many  of  them 
maintaining  missions  in  the  same  political  unit — 
there  was  at  least  this  expression  of  neighborly 
interest — the  schools  were  among  the  first  built  in 
the  city.  The  last  school  building  erected  at  the 
time  of  this  Mayor's  election  had  been  built 
twenty  years  before ;  one  had  been  built  when  the 
foundation  for  the  pillars  of  the  elevated  road  had 
been  set  in  front  of  the  site  before  it  was  pur- 
chased by  the  Board  of  Education,  and  was  now 
in  the  heart  of  a  crowded  foreign  settlement,  had 
no  out-door  playground ;  the  third  building  in  the 
school  district  was  so  old,  so  badly  planned,  that 
for  years  effort  had  been  made  to  secure  a  new 
building,  but  were  defeated  by  the  indifference, 
and  at  times  the  opposition,  of  the  best  citizens 
of  the  district,  according  to  their  own  estimate. 

The  new  Mayor  determined  to  put  the  best  men 
in  the  district  on  the  Board.  Twenty-eight  men 
in  that  district,  men  of  power,  men  of  standards, 
some  of  them  philanthropists  actively  interested 
in  work  for  the  poor,  declined.  The  men  ap- 
pointed, the  best  he  could  get  to  serve,  were  unfit 


3io    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

for  the  position — mentally  unfit,  for  they  were 
uneducated ;  or  morally  unfit,  because  any  position 
paid  or  unpaid  under  the  city  government  was 
conceived  by  them  as  just  so  great  an  opportunity 
to  create  political  capital  or  realize  perquisites 
put  within  their  control  by  their  appointments. 
The  Mayor  had  begun  at  the  top  to  make  his  ap- 
pointments. The  declinations  of  the  honor  were 
because  of  lack  of  time,  a  lack  of  knowledge. 
When  the  appointments  were  announced,  there 
was  a  storm  of  criticism,  and  none  more  violent 
than  the  majority  of  the  men  who  declined  to 
serve  on  the  Board. 

At  this  time  there  was  a  great  deal  of  activity 
among  many  leading  women  in  the  State  to  have 
a  bill  passed  by  the  Legislature  that  would  com- 
pel the  Mayor  of  cities  of  the  first  class  to  appoint 
women  in  the  proportion  of  one-third  of  the  whole 
number  appointed  to  the  Boards  of  Education  of 
those  cities.  The  greatest  activity  for  this  meas- 
ure was  exercised  in  Brooklyn.  One  of  the  lead- 
ers, when  asked  a  question  about  one  of  the 
schools  in  her  own  district,  did  not  know  where 
the  school  was.  She  had  been  a  tax-payer  in  the 
district  twenty-two  years,  and  was  considered  a 
progressive  woman.  Her  chief  reason  for  work- 
ing for  this  bill,  for  spending  money  freely  in  the 
interest  of  its  success,  was  man's  indifference  to 


THE   RESPONSIBILITY         311 

school  matters.  Perhaps  if  the  command,  "Feed 
my  lambs"  had  been  given  to  Dorcas  instead  of 
Peter,  she  might  have  developed  enough  sense  of 
responsibility  about  the  mental  food  given  to 
know  where  the  school  buildings  of  her  own 
school  district  were  located. 

In  this  school  district,  October,  1901,  there 
were  574  children  on  half-day  classes.  There  was 
no  manual  training,  though  the  pupils  in  the 
schools  were,  for  the  most  part,  the  children  of  day 
laborers,  mechanics,  and  clerks  on  small  salaries. 
There  was  no  free  library,  nor  prospect  of  any,  be- 
cause public  sentiment  did  not  demand  it.  There 
was  one  small  park,  difficult  of  access.  To  reach 
it  from  the  outer  sections  of  the  district,  the  tracks 
used  by  nine  lines  of  trolley  cars  must  be  crossed. 
There  were  no  public  baths,  except  one  in  summer, 
near  the  mouth  of  a  large  sewer.  One  of  the 
schools  had  no  out-door  playground;  two  had 
the  closets  in  the  in-door  play-grounds.  There 
was  no  room  where  the  teachers  could  retire  if  ill, 
or  where  they  could  take  their  luncheons;  no 
rooms  where  pupils  could  be  privately  interviewed 
or  taken  if  ill.  Yet  it  is  in  this  very  district, 
where  the  oldest  and  wealthiest  families  of  the 
city  live;  where  nine-tenths  of  the  philanthropic 
enterprises  of  the  city  have  been  born,  and  where 
the  moral  upheavals  for  the  regeneration  of  the 


312    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

city  will  always  find  their  quota  of  leaders,  that 
there  is  developing  some  of  the  worst  evils  of 
a  cosmopolitan  city.  Within  its  borders  is  a 
fair-sized  Italian  city,  with  scores  of  sweat-shops. 
Across  the  thoroughfare  is  a  large  Irish  village 
lying  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  the  streets  dirty,  un- 
paved,  the  houses  in  an  unsanitary  condition. 
Some  of  them  are  overrun  with  rats  of  enormous 
size.  The  streets  at  the  top  of  the  hill  are  be- 
ginning to  yield  to  the  pressure  of  the  crowds  at 
the  foot.  Specific  houses  seem  to  have  in  them 
the  very  germs  of  immorality  and  degeneracy. 
Women  who  have  made  a  struggle  when,  by  mis- 
fortune, forced  to  move  into  these  houses  cease  to 
struggle,  and  yield  to  the  influences  about  them. 
The  tenement-house  laws  are  violated  openly. 

There  are  not  less  than  six  missions,  with  twice 
that  number  of  churches,  in  this  one  section ;  but 
so  far  as  the  environment  of  the  poor  is  concerned, 
they  might  as  well  not  exist.  The  majority  of  the 
tax-payers,  those  who  command  public  respect 
and  confidence,  will  not  serve  authoritatively  in 
the  political  unit  in  which  are  their  homes,  in 
which  their  children  must  grow  up.  They  will 
not  take  offices  that  would  put  it  in  their  power 
to  change  the  environment  of  the  homes  of  the 
poor  by  securing  the  rights,  enforcing  the  laws, 
that  would  protect  all  of  the  homes  from  the  evils 


THE   RESPONSIBILITY         3i3 

of  vice,  ignorance  and  unsanitary  conditions.  But 
these  men  when  wealthy  will  support  liberally 
institutions  made  necessary  by  their  civic  indif- 
ference. 

No  man  in  a  pulpit  in  the  section  has  ever  made 
a  study  of  it  to  arouse  the  conscience  and  ener- 
gies of  the  members  of  his  church  to  their  po- 
litical duties.  Unfortunately  the  women,  for  the 
most  part,  are  as  ignorant  of  the  condition,  and  as 
indifferent.  Because  of  the  unsanitary  conditions 
of  the  houses  occupied  by  the  poor,  the  dirty 
streets,  the  restrictions  of  child  life,  the  lack  of 
opportunity  for  moral  development,  the  total 
dearth  of  recreative  opportunity  for  the  boys  and 
girls,  the  young  men  and  women  who  are  wage- 
earners,  the  lack  of  educational  facilities  for  the 
children  who  must  be  educated,  if  at  all,  at  the 
expense  of  the  State,  the  section  is  a  prolific  source 
of  supply  to  the  institutions  the  intelligent,  sym- 
pathetic, wealthy  women  of  the  section  are  so 
active  in  creating  and  sustaining. 

The  indifference  of  the  wealthy  and  responsible 
to  the  conditions  prevailing  in  parts  of  this  sec- 
tion is  so  well  known  that  officers  at  the  heads  of 
the  city  department  ignore  complaints,  or  treat 
them  as  incidents  to  be  tolerated  as  part  of  the 
experiences  of  their  official  life. 

The  penalty  is  being  paid  in  the  steady  decline 


3  H    LEAVEN  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 

of  real  estate  values,  the  gradual  spread  of  the 
undesirable  part  of  the  community,  the  exodus 
of  the  wealthiest  to  the  sections  more  remote  from 
the  tenements. 

The  environment  that  has  a  degenerating  in- 
fluence on  the  people  of  limited  means  in  that  sec- 
tion is  not  due  primarily  to  the  political  corrup- 
tion of  those  using  their  positions  to  secure  their 
own  ends,  but  to  the  criminal  attitude  of  the  men 
in  the  churches  and  intelligent  men  not  in  them, 
who  refuse  to  assume  the  political  responsibilities 
that  are  their  birthrights;  the  criminal  indiffer- 
ence of  those  who  fail  to  know  the  necessities  of 
which  the  homes  of  the  poor  whom  God  gave  into 
their  charge  stand  in  need.  This  section  of  the 
city  is  typical,  not  peculiar.  Every  section  of  New 
York  gives  evidence  of  the  divorce  between  the 
churches  and  the  political  control  that  makes  the 
environment  of  the  home  and  the  churches. 

The  city  is  what  the  good,  active  people  of  the 
city  want  it  to  be — no  better,  no  worse.  The  con- 
dition of  the  most  uncared-for  section  gives  the 
church's  answer  to  the  question,  "Am  I  my  broth- 
er's keeper?"  The  mark  of  Cain  may  not  be 
visible,  but  every  child  who  goes  out  of  life  be- 
cause its  right  to  light,  air,  sunshine  has  not  been 
protected  is  a  charge  against  the  Church.  Every 
boy  and  girl  whose  life  record  is  shadowed,  black- 


THE  RESPONSIBILITY         315 

ened  because  their  right  to  education,  to  training", 
to  freedom  to  develop  physically,  mentally,  mor- 
ally, spiritually  was  denied  them  through  political 
indifference,  are  the  evidences  of  the  failure  of  the 
churches  to  live  up  to  the  light  which  Christ  left 
to  their  keeping.  His  followers  do  not  march 
through  the  cities  of  the  poor,  an  army. 

When  Christ  said,  "The  second  is  like  unto  it, 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  He  did  not  not  mean 
the  ethical  conception  for  which  the  Church  has 
stood,  but  the  broad,  Christ-like  conception  of 
brotherhood  which  would  protect  "thy  neighbor" 
from  the  evils  of  his  own  ignorance  and  weakness ; 
that  would  use  one's  best  strength  in  his  interest 
seven  days  in  the  week. 


